The Wendigo

Défago did not jump at the plan, but his silence seemed to convey something more than ordinary disapprov

For all that, however, Punk had in him still the instincts of his dying race; his taciturn silence and his endurance survived; also his superstition

He had, however, one objection to Défago, and one only—which was, that the French Canadian sometimes exhibited what Hank described as "the output of a cursed and dismal mind," meaning apparently that he sometimes was true to type, Latin type, and suffered fits of a kind of silent moroseness when nothing could induce him to utter speech.