Jacques the Wolf

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Jacques, known through the great Northwest as "The Wolf," possesses a complex nature unfamiliar to modem civilization, but, according to authority, it is not an uncommon character in the land where the Indian has mixed with French and English. "The Wolf" has little respect for law or the Royal Mounted Police. It pleases him to poach and sell contraband whiskey and he does so. He even goes so far as to aspire for the hand of one of the officer's daughters. He would take her away with him. She is willing to go, but the father, hard, according to the ways of the country, learns of their intentions, follows and shoots "The Wolf" as he deserts his sweetheart and skulks through the woods. Wounded, "The Wolf" staggers over the rocks and slips into the treacherous rapids. "Big Bill," the "hootch seller," finds the man writhing in pain, his eye torn out. He takes "The Wolf" to his hut where his daughter assists in nursing him back to strength. It would seem, in the ensuing action, that there was a shifting of "The Wolf's" character after this incident. He is a man of low instincts and finds no trouble in transferring his affections to Bill's daughter. But he experiences an overmastering desire for revenge against the officer. He hunts the officer out in his own home. His first shot falls to reach its mark. Warned, the officer goes out to hunt "The Wolf" and what follows is one of the most engrossing parts of the piece. The officer is led, through the cunning of "The Wolf," into a bear trap. However. "The Wolf," heeding the strange workings of his nature, tempers his desire for revenge and after the officer has spent the night in the trap he is freed. Alone "The Wolf" sits by the stream questioning his own actions. The point of a gun edges its way above the rocks; there is a sharp report. Two women clothe the body for burial. Two women bow their heads and pray over the rude bier for both had loved the strange man.