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"BUT THAT CAN'T BE"
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make good time over this, Heriot. There is a good deal at stake. And in sending you I believe that I am sending the best man I have. You hold a good reputation for that kind of work, you know. That is all. Come and see me in the morning. You will be driven into Regina to catch the mid-day train West."

Dick went out. He turned along the familiar side-walk and across the barrack-square. But he did not know where he went, nor why. Like a burning-glass his mind was focussed suddenly on one point. He would not go after Andree. He would not, and he could not. He would go East; East to Jennifer. He would desert and go to Jennifer, and he would make her give him the comfort he would need when the shame of what he had done became known. He would take Jennifer, because Ducane must not take her, and he would take with her the searing disgrace and the need for the avoidance of his kind which must follow his desertion. He loved his work. It was the only thing which held honour alive in him. But he loved Jennifer.

"And by ——, I'll keep him away from her," he said, half-aloud.

"What's that?" A Colour-Sergeant thrust his arm through Dick's and walked on with him. "Glad to see you again, Heriot. A kid we had here—Warriner—was always talking about you and the other Grey Wolf folk. By the bye, queer thing that Mrs. Ducane should go back there, isn't it?"

"She's in Toronto——"

"Not she. Grey Wolf, my boy. Grey Wolf. Been there the last six months. She——"

Dick ceased to hear. He was suddenly very angry with Jennifer. What had induced her to go up there again? She must have known that it would be much more difficult for him to take her away from there; much more difficult for him to escape from there. How the devil was he to——

He stopped impatiently, knocking the snow off his high fur over-boots. He had forgotten that Jennifer knew nothing of this determination of his.

"Is she alone?" he asked abruptly.

"Who? Oh, Mrs. Ducane? No; she has her mother with her, I believe. I fancy that if Ducane——"