The Black Wolf's Breed

grass which yet separated us from the bay. Tuskahoma led the way, a tall grim Choctaw chieftain, my companion on many a hunt, his streaming plumes fluttering behin

ss shadows, we passed along the way, hardly brui

ting to a glimmer through the trees. "Yes, the Whi

e from a window in one of those low, square log hou

places; the iron-studded gate hung unhinged and open, the accumu

rden carefully tended; a trailing vine clung lovingly to a corner of the wide gallery, and even a few of the bright

those last years of sweet good-comradeship before her death-the rose

there it was said, some fifteen years before, a Huguenot exile, seemingly a man of education and birth. He built his castle of refuge on a knoll overlooking the sheltered bay, hoping there to

ic swords and rapacious wallets to wrest blood an

ion to search out the hidden treasures of the wilderness, to prey

him to every warring faction that at his house the Choctaw and the Chickasaw, the Frenchman, Spani

pent a quiet hour with him, as far from the jars and

signs of life save the chinks of light creeping ben

m, about which were a number of surgical and scientific

ndians regarded them, contributed to make him an object of fear, wh

he medium height. With his usual grave courtesy he welcomed us and readi

he governor waited, so I only t

I am glad you returned this way, for I have long wished to speak wit

he Indians had withdrawn, and the master, pacing uncertainly about the room, paused and regarded me

dread to meet death, leaving a solemn duty

hurriedly as though he doubted

gee. So I have been known by the whites ever since I came here to escape persecution at h

ear with me in shameful silence to my grave. See this," and he took from his throat a pearl-studded locket, swung by a substantial

; what devi

; what devi

pon the shield, prominent among which were three wolves' heads, chevroned, su

the d'Artins, quartered with those of many of the most ancie

h a swift forceful movement turned the pla

s this?

oking inquiringly into my old f

over all there ran diagonally across the scutcheon a flaming bar

impatiently. I still cou

t boy, wh

the bendlet sinister." I scarce

r. So do those proud arms appear in the sight of God, and so shall they be seen of men. And for ge

ively with humbled pride, his eyes never

n old friend, the abbott of a neighboring monastery. This child was brought up in the Catholic faith, and in him and his descendants resided the true right of the Counts d'Artin. Of this they have always been ignorant. The usurper on his death bed repented, and calling his own son to him, told him the whole story, exacting a solemn oath that he would find the disinherited one and restore to

only broken in my father's time. Here in this packet are the papers which prove it; I

d religion and I embraced her faith. It seems like a judgment of God that I, a Huguenot, sho

hing his hand in mute sympath

e. His glance searched apprehensively into the shadowy corners of the r

r castle in Normandy-oh, merciful God, do you believe it? Oh no, no, after

frightened child, and lef