urself?" Gaviller demanded in a weak, harsh
voice.

"Do you know the reason for this attack?" demanded Ambrose.

Several voices answered "No!"

"All the flour was stored in Michel Trudeau's shack. Some wretch set
fire to it and destroyed it all. Naturally they thought it was done by
John Gaviller's orders. This is their reprisal."

"You dared to think we would stoop to such a thing!" cried Colina.

The general animosity that he felt like a wall around him made Ambrose
defiant.

"I said they thought so," he retorted. "I harangued them until my
throat was sore. I couldn't hold them, and I hid myself and came with
them, thinking perhaps I could help you."

"How did they come?" asked Strange smoothly.

"In my boat that they seized," said Ambrose.

"It all comes back to you whichever way you trace it," cried Gaviller.
"If you had not attacked us yesterday, they would never have dared
to-day! You have brought us to this! I hope you're satisfied. I
warned you what would happen as a result of your tampering with the
natives. If we're all murdered it will be on your head!"

"On the contrary, if we're murdered it will be because they found
whiskey in your store," retorted Ambrose.

"Impossible!" cried Gaviller and Strange together.

Ambrose laid a hand on Tole's shoulder. "This man saw it on the
counter," he said. "I sent him to the store to get guns for us both.
It had no business to be there, as you all know."

"They must have brought it with them," said Strange. "I locked the
store myself."

"Of course they brought it," said Gaviller.

"Not much use to discuss that point," said Ambrose curtly. "They have
it, and it has robbed them of the last vestiges of manhood. They're
nothing but brutes now."

The old man rose. "Silence!" he cried quaveringly. "You are insolent!
By your light-mindedness and vanity you have raised a storm that no man
can see the end of! You have plunged us into the horrors of Indian
warfare after thirty years' peace! How dare you come here and attempt
to hector us! Silence, I say, and keep your place!"

"Father," murmured Colina remonstratingly. "You must save your
strength."

He shook her off impatiently. "Must I submit to be bearded in my own
house by this scamp, this fire-brand, this destroyer?"

Ambrose could not bandy words with this wreck of a strong man. He
signed to Tole, and they went outside and joined Macfarlane.

The three of them waited in the door