Hibou threw more wood on the fire, and they squatted about it again.
“Ah’m ver’ content; Ah can do somme t’ing for heem!” said Le Grand.
“Nous aussi,” quickly answered the others, then silence came over the group.
The wind sighed through the trees. “Leesten!” Bossu held up his hand.
Far off in the forest a scratching and faint pattering could be heard on the hard crust. The trappers listened intently; the sound grew, and then they heard a long “Who-ee-e!” They looked at one another.
“Tritou, by diable!” said Dumois. “Vat he comme for, hein?” He looked at the camp as he spoke, nodding toward it. The others perceived his meaning and growled, “Nevaire!”
“Ho-o-o-p!” shouted Bossu. An answering call sounded near by, and in a few minutes six dogs drawing a light sledge ran into the firelight and stopped, panting. Behind them Tritou’s squat figure appeared, rifle on his arm.
“Bon soi’!” answered Bossu. “Vat you do here, Tritou?”
“Ah come f’om Petites Colignes las’ night et to-day; Ah go to Hautes Terres to-mor’. ’Ow many here?” he asked.
“Five!” said Le Grand. The three other Indians’ eyes gleamed for a moment, but they made no comment.
“Who ees de hoddaire mans?” asked Tritou, looking about for the fifth member of the party.
“Clement! ’Sleep!” answered Le Grand, jerking his thumb toward the camp as he named an Indian who, he knew, was away from the post, trapping to the southward.
Tritou unharnessed his team and fed them. Then he drew his blankets from the sledge and, with a nod to the others, went in the camp.
Bossu walked in quietly after him, his knife in his hand.
Tritou had wrapped himself up and lain down next to Verbaux on the fresh boughs. There was only a dim, shadowed light, that came from the fire, in the interior, and Bossu chuckled softly as he saw where Tritou had chosen to sleep. He sneaked out and beckoned to the others; they came, saw, and laughed softly. Then they brought in their own covers and stretched out in the camp for the night—all but Le Grand, who arranged his blankets in the angle of the walls, and sat there through the long winter darkness, his eyes fixed on the corner where Tritou and Verbaux slept side by side. Sometimes he would take out his pipe, and the _cheep-cheep-cheep_ of the sharp knife-edge cutting through the tobacco would break the breathing stillness of the camp.