The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-09-07
I he Honor
 By James Oliver CUgr5V5y@0@
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(C>ontinued-l
 -Tt is my old home," said Jan, trying To keep his voice natural. T have wondered if there are changes. You saw Cummins. the factor?'
 "Yes, he was there-'
 'And-and Jean de Gravois, the chief anan?''
 He was away
 "The factor had daughter, Me hsse"-
 "She left Lac Bain long time ago, m'sieur,' said the trapper. M Ms1eur Cummins told me that he had not seen her in long time. I believe it was almost a year.
 Jan went to the company's store. He took his pack to the sledge and dogs in the edge of the spruce, and Kazan leaped to greet him at the end of his babiche. That night as Jan travelled through the forest he did not notice the stars or the friendly shad- ows.
 "A year." he repeated to himself again nd again. and once when Ka gan rubbed against his leg and looked up into his face he said: 'Ah. Kazan, our MeIisse went away with the Eng Hshman. May the great God give them happinessl"
 The forest claimed him more than ever after this. He did not go back Co Oxford House in the spring, but sold his furs to a passing halfbreed and wandered through all of that spring and summer in the country to the west. It was January when he retRrneds $9 hisecabing>when the snows were deepest. and three days later he set out to outfit at the Hudson's bay post on Gods lake instead of at OK ford House. It was while they were crossing part of the lake that Kazan leaped aside for an instant in his traces and snapped at something in the snow.
 Ian say the movement, but gave no atfeltiea to ituaHIea little later when Kazarf stepped and fell upon his belly. biting at the harness and whining in pain. The thought of Kazan's sudden snap at the snow came to him then like a knife thrust, and with low cry of horror and fear he fell upon his knees beside the dog Kazan whim pered~ and his -bnshE-tal swept the sDW eas-JaA lifted his great wolfish h@fd Bef#eeh his two hands. No other sound came from Jan's lips now, and slowly he drew the dog up to him until he held him in his arms as he might have held a child Kazan stilled the whimpering sounds in his throat His one eye rested otl, his masters face, faithful. watching for some sign, for some Ian guage there, even as the burn ing fires of asstrauge torture gnawed at his life, and in that eye Jan saw the deepening reddish film which he had seen hundred times before in the eyes
 
 bait
 A moan of anguish burst from Jan's lips. and he held his face close down against Kazan's head and sobbed now like a child, while Kazan rubbed his hot muzzle against his cheek and his muscles hardened in a last desire to give battle to whatever was giving his master grief It was a long time be- fore Jan lifted his face from the shag gy head, and when he did he knew that the last of all love. of all compan- ionship, of all that bound him to flesh and blood in his lonely world, was gone. Kazan was dead.
 From the sledge he took a blanket and wrapped Kazan in it and carried him-a hundred yards back from the trail. With bowed head he came be- hind his four dogs into Gods House. Half an hour later he turned back into the wilderness with his supplies. It wassdaEk <SFnep AeA returred to where he had left Kazan. He placed him upon the sledge. and the four huslzies whined as they. dragged on their bur den, from which the smell of death came to them. They stopped in the deep forests beyond the lake, and Jan built fire
 This night, on all nights in his lonely life. Jan drew Kazan close to him, and he shivered as the other dogs slunk back from him suspiciously and the fire and the spruce tops broke the stiffness of the forest. He looked at theseraekHhgs flames. at the ftful shad- ows which hey. set dancing and grimac- inge about him, and it seemed to him now that they were no longer friends. but were taunting him-gloating in Ka- zan's death and tehing him that he was alone. alone, alone. He let the fire die down. stirring it into life only when the cold 'stiffened him. and when at last he fell into an unquiet slumber it was still to hear the spruce tops wh4Spering. to. him that Kazan was dead and that in dying he. had broken the4lase fra gite link between Jan Tho reau. and Meifssel
 CHAPTER Xvi.