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helmet and cuirass that stood up like a legless sentinel in one corner, this room, like the others, breathed of
extreme age. Over a big open fireplace, in which half a dozen birch logs were burning, hung a number of
old-fashioned weapons; a flintlock, a pair of obsolete French dueling pistols, a short rapier similar to that
which Pierre wore, and two long swords. Philip noticed that about each of the dueling pistols was tied a bow
of ribbon, dull and faded, as though the passing of generations had robbed them of beauty and color, to be
replaced by the somberness of age.
During the meal Philip could not but observe that Jeanne was laboring under some mysterious strain. Her
cheeks were brilliantly flushed, and her eyes were filled with a lustrous brightness that he had never seen in
them before. Their beauty was almost feverish. Several times he caught a strange little tremor of her white
shoulders, as though a sudden chill had passed through her. He discovered, too, that Pierre was observing
these things, and that there was something forced in the half-breed's cheerfulness. But D'Arcambal and Otille
seemed completely oblivious of any change. Their happiness overflowed. Philip thought of his last supper at
Churchill, with Eileen Brokaw and her father. Miss Brokaw had acted strangely then, and had struggled to
hide some secret grief or excitement, as Jeanne was struggling now.
He was glad when the meal was finished, and the master of Fort o' God rose from his seat. At D'Arcambal's
movement his eyes caught Jeanne's, and then he saw that Pierre was looking sharply at him.
"Jeanne owes you an apology--and an explanation, M'sieur Philip," said D'Arcambal, resting a hand upon
Jeanne's head. "We are going to retire, and she will initiate you into the fold of Fort o' God."
Pierre and Otille followed him from the room. For the first time in an hour Jeanne laughed frankly at Philip.
"There isn't much to explain, M'sieur Philip," she said, rising from her seat. "You know pretty nearly all there
is to know about Fort o' God now. Only I am sure that I did not appear to value your confidence very
much--a little while ago. It must have seemed ungrateful in me, indeed, to have told you so little about
myself and my home, after what you did for Pierre and me. But I have father's permission now. It is the
second time that he has ever given it to me."
"And I don't want to hear," exclaimed Philip, bluntly. "I have been more or less of a brute, Miss Jeanne. I
know enough about Fort o' God. It is a glorious place. You owe me nothing, and for that reason--"
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"But I insist," interrupted the girl. "Do you mean to say that you do not care to listen, when this is the second
time in my life that I have had the opportunity of talking about my home? And the first--didn't give me any
pleasure. This will."
A shadow came into Jeanne's eyes. She motioned him to a seat beside her in front of the fire. Her nearness,
the touch of her dress, the sweet perfume of her presence, thrilled him. He felt that the moment was near when
the whole world as he knew it was to slip away from him, leaving him in a paradise, or a chaos of despair.
Jeanne looked up at the dueling pistols. The firelight trembled in the soft folds of lace over her bosom; it
glistened in her hair, and lighted her face with a gentle glow.
"There isn't much to explain," she said again, in a voice so low that it was hardly more than a whisper. "But
what little there is I want you to know, so that when you go away you will understand. More than two hundred
years ago a band of gentlemen adventurers were sent over into this country by Prince Rupert to form the
Hudson's Bay Company. That is history, and you know more of it, probably, than I. One of these men was Le
Chevalier Grosellier. One summer he came up the Churchill, and stopped at the great rock on which we saw
the sun setting to-night, and which was called the Sun Rock by the Indians. He was struck by the beauty of
the place, and when he went back to France it was with the plan of returning to build himself a chateau in the
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