rejoicing at this rare good fortune, "and I beg you
to listen to what I say. There will be a boat awaiting us beneath the
old Agency building at midnight. You must be there with De Croix."

"De Croix?"

"Yes; I know not if that be his name to you, but I mean the Frenchman
whose life you saved. Will you take him thither at midnight, together
with the rifle I left in the council lodge?"

For a moment she did not answer. Doubtless it was a bitter struggle
for her thus to agree even to meet the man again. At last she made
reply, although I could plainly mark the faltering of her voice.

"The man of whom you speak shall be there," she said, "unless some
accident make it impossible."

As I drew back my head, and sat upright. Mademoiselle spoke
questioningly.

"With whom were you conversing just now, Monsieur?"

"The young woman of whom we have spoken so often," I answered
thoughtlessly. "She has pledged herself to bring De Croix to the
meeting-place."

"Indeed!" she exclaimed, with accent so peculiar I knew not how to
interpret it. "It almost makes me desire to form one of your party."

CHAPTER XXXIII

AN INTERVENTION OF FATE

"Form one of our party?" I echoed, believing I must have misunderstood
her words. "Surely, Mademoiselle, you cannot mean that you take your
promise to the half-breed so seriously as voluntarily to remain in
captivity?"

"Yes, but I do, Monsieur!" and the tone in which she said it was firm
with decision. "The Indian asked my pledge in all solemnity, and has
gone away trusting to it. My conscience could never again be clear did
I prove false in such a matter. You also made a pledge, even before
mine was given; was it not your purpose to abide by it?"

"No," I answered, a bit shortly. "I merely agreed to his proposition
at your expressed desire that I should, and because I believed you had
framed some plan of escape. Have you such small respect for me,
Mademoiselle, as to think I could consent to leave you here alone and
at the mercy of these red fiends? Have I risked my life in coming here
for no other end than this?"

I felt her reach her arm across the pile of skins lying between us, and
grasp my hand within her own.

"But, dear friend, you must!" she said, pleadingly, her softly
modulated voice dwelling upon the words as if they came hard. "Truly
you must, John Wayland, and for my sake as well as your own. I am
comparatively safe here,--safe at least from act