and.
He will snuff this pretty conspiracy out before Brigdar and Ben get
their heads apart."

She gave that flitting look which laughs at fear and hastened on. We
could not go back as we had come without exposing ourselves to the two
conspirators, and our course lay nearer the Indian revel. About a mile
from the fort Hortense stopped short. Through the underbrush crawled
two braves with their eyes leering at us.

"Hortense," I urged, "run for the rear gate! I'll deal with these two
alone. There may be more! Run, my dear!"

"Give me your musket," she said, never taking her eyes from the savages.

Wondering not a little at the request, I handed her the weapon.

"Now run," I begged, for a sand crane flapped up where the savages had
prowled a pace nearer.

Quick as it rose Hortense aimed. There was a puff of smoke. The bird
fell shot at the savages' feet, and the miscreants scudded off in
terror.

"That was better," said Hortense, "_you_ would have killed a man."

In vain I urged her to hasten back. She walked.

"You know it may be the last time," she laughed, mocking my grave air
of the beach.

"Hortense--Hortense--how am I to keep a promise?"

But she did not answer a word till we reached the sally-port. There
she turned with a brave enough look till her eyes met mine, when all
was the confusion that men give their lives to win.

"Yes--yes--keep your promise. If you had not come, I had died; if I
had not come, you had died. Let us keep faith with truth, for that's
keeping faith with God--and--and--God bless you," she whispered
brokenly, and she darted through the gate.

* * * * * *

And the next morning we embarked, young Jean Groseillers remaining with
ten Frenchmen to hold the fort; Brigdar and Ben aboard our ship instead
of going to the English at the foot of the bay; half the prisoners
under hatches in M. Groseillers's ship; the other half sent south on
the raft--a plan which effectually stopped that conspiracy of Ben's.
Not one glimpse of our fair passenger had we on all that voyage south,
for what with Ben's oaths and Governor Brigdar's drinking, the cabin
was no place for Hortense.

At Isle Percee, entering the St. Lawrence, lay a messenger from La
Chesnaye's father with a missive that bore ill news.

M. de la Barre, the new governor, had ordered our furs confiscated
because we had gone north without a license, and La Chesnaye had
thriftily rigged up t