hed them as they passed. I had only my hunting
knife in my belt. I stood before Ellen, and I fought like ten
demons! God is witness that I did all that one man could. But what
avail against scores of such foes? Three corpses were heaped at my
threshold. I saw them carrying away many others dead or wounded,
Our father fought too; and Ellen backed into the corner where the
gun stood, and with her own hands she shot down two of the savages.

"Would to heaven she had shot at the white one, who was tenfold
more of a fiend! But he shall not escape--he shall not escape! I
shall know his face when I see it next. And I will not go down to
the grave till he and I have stood face to face once more, when I
am not bound and helpless, but a free man with weapons in my hand.
That day will come; I read it in the book of fate. The Lord God,
unto whom vengeance belongeth, He will cause it to come to pass!"

Humphrey was afraid of these wild outbursts, as likely to bring on
fever; and yet he could not but desire to know more.

"A white man? Nay, brother; that is scarce to be believed. A white
man to league himself to such deeds as these!"

"A white man--a Frenchman. For I called upon him in our tongue, and
he answered me in the same, but with that halting accent which I
know belongs to the sons of France. Moreover, he made no secret of
it. He called us dogs of English, who were robbers of the soil
where none had right to penetrate save the subjects of his royal
master. He swore that they would make an end of us, root and
branch; and he laughed when he saw the Indians cutting down the
little ones, and covering their tender bodies with cruel wounds;
nor had he any pity upon the one white woman; and when I raved upon
him and cursed him, he laughed back, and said he had no power to
allay the fury of the savages. Those who would preserve themselves
safe should retire within the bounds of the colony to which they
belong. France would have an end of encroachment, and the Indians
were her friends, and would help her to drive out the common foe!"

Humphrey set his teeth and clinched his hands. The old instinctive
hatred of centuries between French and English, never really dead,
now leaped into life in his breast. He had heard plenty of talk
during his boyhood of France's boundless pretensions with regard to
the great New World of the West, and how she sought, by the simple
process of declaring territory to be hers, to extend her power over