would like service with him," said the other coureur de bois.

His companion laughed.

"Service with La Salle means the hardest marching and heaviest labor
a voyageur ever undertook. I have heard he is himself tough as iron. But
men hereabouts who have been in his service will take to the woods when
they hear he has arrived; traders that he sent ahead with goods. If he
gets his hand on them after he finds they have squandered his property,
it will go hard with them."

"He has a long gray-colored face above his broad shoulders. I have heard
of this Sieur Robert Cavelier de la Salle ever since he came to the
province more than ten years ago, but I never saw him before. Is it true
that Count Frontenac is greatly bound to him?"

"So true that Sieur de la Salle thereby got favor at court. It was at
court that a prince recommended to him yon swart Italian in white and
gold that he brought with him on his last voyage from France. Now, there
is a man known already throughout the colony by reason of his hand."

"Which hand?"

"The right one."

"I see naught ailing that. He wears long gauntlets pulled well over both
wrists."

"His left hand is on his sword hilt. Doth he not hold the right a little
stiffly?"

"It is true. The fingers are not bent."

"They never will be bent. It is a hand of copper."

"How can a man with a copper hand be of service in the wilderness?"

The first ranger shrugged. "That I know not. But having been maimed in
European wars and fitted with a copper hand, he was yet recommended to
Sieur de la Salle."

"But why hath an Italian the uniform of France?"

"He is a French officer, having been exiled with his father from his own
country."

The coureur de bois, who had reached the settlement later than his
companion, grunted.

"One would say thou wert of the Griffin crew thyself, with the latest
news from Quebec and Montreal."

"Not I," laughed the first one. "I have only been in the woods with
Greysolon du Lhut, who knows everything."

"Then he told thee the name of this Italian with the copper hand?"

"Assuredly. This Italian with the copper hand is Sieur Greysolon du
Lhut's cousin, and his name is Henri de Tonty."

"I will say this for Monsieur Henri de Tonty: a better made man never
stepped on the strand at St. Ignace."

[Illustration: Autograph of Tonty.]

Greysolon du Lhut was the captain of coureurs de bois in the northwest.
No other leader had such influence with the lawless