"Let me have the grouse, M'sieu," she said; "the hunt was long?"
But Dupre did not answer.
CHAPTER XIX THE HUDSON'S BAY BRIGADE
The two days that followed were heavy ones to Maren.
No farther did they dare venture lest they pass to the west and miss
the brigade coming down from the north and entering the lake at the
northeast extremity.
So they waited on the shore in anxiety of spirit, watching the bright
waters with eyes that ached with the intensity of the vigil, and Dupre
hunted in the forest and over the sand dunes, among the high meadows
that broke the heavy woods in this region, and down along the reaches
of the water.
"Farther with each day!" thought Maren to herself. "Holy Mother, send
the brigade!"
And Dupre echoed the thought in sadness of soul.
"More pain for her heart in each hour's delay. Would the trial were
done!"
About three of the clock on the first day of waiting there came sounds
of singing and a string of canoes rounded a bend of the shore at the
south.
"M'sieu!" cried Maren swiftly; "who comes?"
Dupre, tinkering at the canoe overturned on the pebbly beach,
straightened and looked in the direction she indicated.
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