er.

Twice afterward, the same detail, all enjoined to secrecy, loaded their
cannon, and stood with burning matches ready to fire at the word, while
the maneuver was repeated; an interval of a day or so was allowed to
elapse on each occasion, and the hour was variously chosen--when it was
possible for the French woman to escape, as Choo-qualee-qualoo was given
to understand. Both times Demere protested, although he had accorded the
plan his countenance, urging the capricious temper of the Indians, who
might permit Mrs. MacLeod's exit from the fort one day, and the next,
for a whim, or for revenge toward her husband, who had incurred their
special enmity for outwitting them on his journey hither, shoot her
through the heart as she stood on the crest of the counterscarp. And of
what avail then the shotted cannon, the firelocks in the loop-holes!

"You know they are for our own protection," he argued. "Otherwise we
could not endure to see the risk. The utmost we can do for her is to
prevent capture, or if she is shot to take quick vengeance. Loading the
cannon only saves _our_ nerves."

"I admit it," declared Stuart,--"a species of military sal-volatile. I
never pretended to her that she was protected at all, or safe in any
way,--she volunteered for a duty of great hazard."

Demere, although appreciating the inestimable value to the garrison of
the opportunity, was relieved after the third occasion, when Alexander
MacLeod, by an accident, discovered the fact of these dangerous sorties
in the face of a savage enemy, no less capriciously wicked and
mischievous than furious and blood-thirsty. His astonished rage
precluded speech for a moment, and the two officers found an opportunity
to get him inside the great hall, and turning the key Stuart put it in
his pocket.

"Now, before you expend your wrath in words that we may all regret," he
said, sternly, "you had best understand the situation. Your wife is not
a woman to play the fool under any circumstances, and for ourselves we
are not in heart for practical jokes. Mr. MacLeod, we have here more
than three hundred mouths to feed daily, nearly three hundred the mouths
of hearty, hungry men, and we have exhausted our supply of corn and have
in the smoke-house barely enough salted meat to sustain us for another
fortnight. Then we shall begin to eat the few horses. We are so closely
beleaguered that it has proved impossible to get an express through that
cordon of savages to