"Thank you, Jean, for what you have done!"
"Mon Dieu!" gasped Jean when she had gone. "What if Iowaka had been here then?"
CHAPTER XXI
A BROKEN HEART
The day following the fight in the forest, Dixon found Jean de Gravois alone, and came up to him.
"Gravois, will you shake hands with me?" he said. "I want to thank you for what you did to me yesterday. I deserved it. I have asked Miss Mélisse to forgive me—and I want to shake hands with you."
Jean was thunderstruck. He had never met this kind of man.
"Que diantre!" he ejaculated, when he had come to his senses. "Yes, I will shake hands!"
For several days after this Jean could see that Mélisse made an effort to evade him. She did not visit Iowaka when he was in the cabin. Neither did she and Dixon go again into the forest. The young Englishman spent more of his time at the store; and just before the trappers began coming in, he went on a three-days' sledge-trip with Croisset.
The change delighted Jean. The first time he met Mélisse after the fight, his eyes flashed pleasure.