Tender as a woman in sickness,
counting no cost or hardship too dear in the rendering of assistance to
the needy, he was at the same time hard and unbending toward wilful
offenders, and a very real terror to the enemies of his people.
He had killed men for selling whiskey to his Indians. And those of his
own people who drank the whiskey, he had flogged with
dog-whips--floggings that had been administered in no half-hearted or
uncertain manner, and that had ceased only upon the tiring of his arm.
And many there were among his Indians who could testify that the arm
was slow to tire.
To this little colony, upon the fourth day after his departure from
Chloe Elliston's school on the Yellow Knife, came LeFroy with his
freighted canoe. And because it was not his first trip among them, all
knew his mission.
It so happened that at the time MacNair left for the barren grounds,
Sotenah, the leader of the young men, the orator who had lauded MacNair
to the skies and counselled a summary wiping out of Chloe Elliston's
school, chanced to be laid up with an injury to his foot. And, as he
could not accompany the hunters, MacNair placed him in charge of the
fort during his absence.
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