nd, muffling the moon; and M.
Radisson ordered us ashore for the night. Feet at a smouldering fire too
dull for an enemy to see and heads pillowed on logs, we bivouacked with
the frosty ground for bed.

"Bad beds make good risers," was all M. Radisson's comfort, when Godefroy
grumbled out some complaint.

A _hard_ master, you say? A wise one, say I, for the forces he fought in
that desolate land were as adamant. Only the man dauntless as adamant
could conquer. And you must remember, while the diamond and the charcoal
are of the same family, 'tis the diamond has lustre, because it is
_hard_. Faults, M. Radisson had, which were almost crimes; but look you
who judge him--his faults were not the faults of nearly all other men,
the faults which _are_ a crime--_the crime of being weak_!

The first thing our eyes lighted on when the sun rose in flaming darts
through the gray haze of dawn was a half-built fort on an island in
mid-river. At the water side lay a queer-rigged brigantine, rocking to
the swell of the tide. Here, then, was cause of that firing heard across
the marsh on the lower river.

"'Tis the pirate ship we saw on the high sea," muttered Godefroy, rubbing
his eyes.

"She flies no flag! She has no license to trade! She's a poacher! She
will make a prize worth the taking," added M. Radisson sharply. Then, as
if to justify that intent--"As _we_ have no license, we must either take
or be taken!"

The river mist gradually lifted, and there emerged from the fog a
stockaded fort with two bastions facing the river and guns protruding
from loopholes.

"Not so easy to take that fort," growled Godefroy, who was ever a
hanger-back.

"All the better," retorted M. de Radisson. "Easy taking makes soft men!
'Twill test your mettle!"

"Test our mettle!" sulked the trader, a key higher in his obstinacy.
"All very well to talk, sir, but how can we take a fort mounted with
twenty cannon----"

"I'll tell you _the how_ when it's done," interrupted M. de Radisson.

But Godefroy was one of those obstinates who would be silent only when
stunned.

"I'd like to know, sir, what we're to do," he began.

"Godefroy, 'twould be waste time to knock sense in your pate! There is
only one thing to do always--only one, _the right thing_! Do it, fool!
An I hear more clack from you till it's done, I'll have your tongue out
with the nippers!"

Godefroy cowered sulkily back, and M. de Radisson laughed.

"That will quel