? ? ? ? But one, in all the Northland, knew the man Paul Roubeau, and that man was Malemute Kid. Before him alone did the priest cast off the sacerdotal garb and stand naked. And why not? These two men knew each other. Had they not shared the last morsel of fish, the last pinch of tobacco, the last and inmost thought, on the barren stretches of Bering Sea, in the heartbreaking mazes of the Great Delta, on the terrible winter journey from Point Barrow to the Porcupine?
? ? ? ? Father Roubeau puffed heavily at his trail-worn pipe, and gazed on the red-disked sun, poised somberly on the edge of the northern horizon. Malemute Kid wound up his watch. It was midnight.
? ? ? ? 'Cheer up, old man!' The Kid was evidently gathering up a broken thread. 'God surely will forgive such a lie. Let me give you the word of a man who strikes a true note:
If She have spoken a word, remember thy lips are sealed,
And the brand of the Dog is upon him by whom is the secret
? ? ? ? revealed.
If there be trouble to Herward, and a lie of the blackest can
? ? ? ? clear,
Lie, while thy lips can move or a man is alive to hear.
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