"
Reckless, indeed, was this young cavalier, else he would not have made
that speech.
Anders McElroy turned white beneath his tan and his fingers tapped the
table.
"Not ungrateful am I, M'sieu, but I stick by the colours I choose. If
our companies are rivals, then we are such, and I follow my master's
lead. It is at present the North-west organisation. I am pledged in
Montreal--and--I prove faithful."
The young man's face was fired with that spirit which ever lay so near
the surface and he looked at his whilom host with a mighty hauteur.
"I thank you for your kindness, M'sieu, but I must decline it further.
Come, Ivrey," and turning he picked up his wide hat, bowed first to
McElroy and then to Ridgar, and strode toward the outer door. As he
passed the lintel the not insignificant form of Rette blocked his exit,
en route for a cup she had left behind. With an instant flourish the
hat in his hand swept the logs of the floor, he seized the woman's
toil-hard fingers and bore them to his lips.
"Excellent, Madame, was that meal," he murmured, "and never to be
forgot so long as one unused to hardship faces privation. I thank you."
Comely Rette flushed to her sleek hair and some flicker of a girlhood
that had its modicum of grace, flared up in the swift curtsy with which
she acknowledged the compliment.
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