She had not spoken empty words.

She would fight.

She would kill, if it was necessary to kill.
And he saw her, all at once, as he had not seen her before.

He remembered a painting which he had seen a long time ago in Montreal.

It was L'Esprit de la Solitude--The Spirit of the Wild--painted by Conne, the picturesque French-Canadian friend of Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, and a genius of the far backwoods who had drawn his inspiration from the heart of the wilderness itself.