Jean quieted the anxious mother, whose nose sought his hand. "See, Father, what a dog-team she has given me."
One after another he proudly exhibited the puppies. "Mark the bone of their legs. They will make a famous team with Fleur as leader. Is it not so?"
"They are a possession to be proud of, Jean," agreed the priest, standing discreetly out of reach, for Fleur's slant eyes never left him.
"Which of them do you wish, Julie?" Jean asked. "One, you know, is for you."
"Oh, Jean; you are too good!" cried the girl. "I should love this one, marked like Fleur," and she stooped to take the whimpering puppy in her arms, while Jean's hand rested on Fleur's massive head, lest the fear of the mother dog for the safety of her offspring should overpower her friendship for Julie.
As the girl fearlessly reached and lifted the puppy, Fleur suddenly thrust forward her long muzzle and licked her hand.
"Bon!" cried Jean, delighted. "Fleur would allow no one on earth to do that except you. The puppy's name must be Julie."
In his joy at the coming of Fleur's family Marcel had forgotten, for the time being, the hearing. But later in the morning at the trade-house, Gillies, whose obstinacy had been deeply aroused by the attitude of Inspector Wallace, planned with the accused man how they should handle the Lelacs.
For the factor had no intention of permitting Jean's exoneration to hang in the balance of the prejudiced mind of Wallace. The canny Scot realized that if the Lelacs were thoroughly discredited at the hearing at which the leaders of the Crees would be present; were shown to have an ulterior motive in their attempt to fix the crime upon Marcel, there would be a strong reaction in favor of Jean—that his story would be generally accepted; so to this end he carefully laid his plans. Wallace, busy prying into the books of the post, he did not take into his confidence, wishing to surprise him as well as the Crees by the bomb-shell the defense had in store for the Lelacs.
At noon Wallace overheard Jules and McCain talking of Fleur's puppies which they had just seen.