strokes to an old French chant
as they shot down towards the river's source.

Beyond, in the expanse of the lake, a boat or two showed far and faint.
We put into the rocky shore, and, mounting upon a crag which guarded the
head of the rapid, I waved to the leading canoe as it swept along. In the
centre sat a figure in uniform with forage-cap on head, and I could see
that he was scanning through a field-glass the strange figure that waved
a welcome from the rock. Soon they entered the rapid, and commenced to
dip down its rushing waters. Quitting the rock, I got again into my
canoe, and we shoved off into the current. Thus running down the rapid
the two canoes drew together, until at its foot they were only a few
paces apart.

Then the officer in the large canoe, recognizing a face he had last seen
three months before in the hotel at Toronto, called out, "Where on earth
have you dropped from?" and with a "Fort Garry, twelve days out, sir," I
was in his boat.

The officer whose canoe thus led the advance into Rainy River was no
other than the commander of the Expeditionary Force. During the period
which had elapsed since that force had landed at Thunder Bay on the
shore of Lake Superior, he had toiled with untiring energy to overcome
the many obstacles which opposed the progress of the troops through the
rock-bound fastnesses of the North. But there are men whose perseverance
hardens, whose energy quickens beneath difficulties and delay, whose
genius, like some spring bent back upon its base, only gathers strength
from resistance. These men are the natural soldiers of the world; and
fortunate is it for those who carry swords and rifles and are dressed in
uniform when such men are allowed to lead them, for with such men as
leaders the following, if it be British, will be all right--nay, if it be
of any nationality on the earth, it will be all right too. Marches will
be made beneath suns which by every rule of known experience ought to
prove fatal to nine-tenths of those who are exposed to them, rivers will
be crossed, deserts will be traversed, and mountain passes will be
pierced, and the men who cross and traverse and pierce them will only
marvel that doubt or distrust should ever have entered into their minds
as to the feasibility of the undertaking. The man who led the little army
across the Northern wilderness towards Red River was well fitted in
every respect for the work which was to be done. He was young in years