Fort Amity

or two Barboux took a whim to carry off the little boatman on his expeditions and leave Muskingon in charge of the camp. He pretended that John, as he mended of his wound, needed

off Bateese, who loved to sit by his

ed John, "he will have no excuse,

uld sit brooding for hours. Perhaps he nursed his hatred of Barboux; perhaps he distrusted the journey-for he and Menehwehna, Ojibways both, were hundreds of miles from their own country, which lay at the back of

eches about his right arm and dipped it cautiously, bending over the ledge until his whole body from the waist overhung the water, and it was a wonder how his thighs kept their grip. Then, in a moment, up flew his heels and over he soused. John, peering down as the swirl cleared, saw only a red-brown back heaving below; and as the seconds dragged by, and the back app

any rate was the one scene he afterwards saw most clearly, in health and in the delirium of fever-the fire; the ring of faces; beyond the faces a sapling strung with fish like short broad-swords reflecting the flames' glint; a stouter sapling laid across two forked boughs, and

r? Was Barboux his enemy? The words had no meaning. They were all in the same boat, and "France" and "England" had become idle names. If he consid

no doubt, must have happened many years before, for spruces of fair growth rose behind the alders on the swampy shore, and tall wickup plants and tussocks of the blueberry choked the

e, spied the antlers of a bull-moose spreading above an alder-clump across the stream. The tall brute had come down through the bois brulé to drink, or to brow

rashed away through the undergrowth as the shot rang after him. Bateese and Muskingon had the canoe launched in a second, and the whole party clambered in and paddl

e mosses, and again another on the leaves of a wickup plant a rod or two farther on the trail. The sergeant, hurrying to inspect these traces, plunged into liqui

contented himself with watching the Indians as they picked up a new trail, followed it for a while, then patiently harked back to the last spot of blood and worked off on a new line. Barboux had theories of

next reach of the river, and there, at the first ford, had found the moose lying dead and warm,

y heard him and went on skinning the moose, standing knee deep in the bloody water, for the body was too heavy to be dragged ashore without infinite labour. Menehwehna found and handed him the bullet, which had glanced across and under the shoulder-blade, and flattened itself against one of the ribs on the other side.

eam up to the hill ridges, where rapid succeeded rapid; and two days of all but incessant portage

up and over the ridge would be back-breaking work. Let the canoe, therefore, be abandoned-hidden somewhere by the headwaters-and let the Indians hurry ahead and rig up a light craft to carry the party downstream. They had axes to strip the bark and thongs to close it at bow and stern. What more was

ry with them from the top of the ridge and afterwards allow them to push on alone. He took John to keep him company after their departure, and because the two prisoners could not well be left in charge of Bateese, who besides had his hands full with the baggage. So Bateese and McQuarters toiled behind, the little man grunting and shifting his load from time to tim

to a halt; it came from a tiny humming-bird poising itself over a bush-tufted rock on his right. As it sang on, careless of his presence, John watched the music bubbling and trembling within its flame-coloured throat. He, too, felt ready to sing for no other reason than pure delight. He understood the ancient gods and their laughter; he smiled down with them upon the fret of the world and mortal fate. Father Jove, optimus ma

fancies. Barboux, being out of condition and scant of breat

ached it, and the rocky walls opened in the haze of its yell

were treading the actual pass, and Menehwehna, rounding an angle of the cliff, had been lost to sig

against the rock-face on a heap of scree, in the very issue of the pass, with

zled them, for he lay dark against the

e up to him and pointed. Th

dead and scalped