d the
Nemesis of a wrong once done dealt its fatal stroke at last? The
voices of the night were silent; the chambers of the great tossing sea
hid their secret well. Had this gallant and reckless young soldier of
France, this petted courtier of the gayest court in Europe, whose very
name and rank I knew not, succeeded in his desperate deed? Had he
reached yonder blood-stained shore, lined with infuriated savages, and
found safe passage through them to the side of the woman he had once
called wife, and then forgotten? Or had he found, instead, the solemn
peace of death, amid the swirling waters of this vast inland sea, so
many leagues to the westward of that sunny land he loved? These were
the thoughts that shook me, as I leaned out above the rail, her dear
hand always on my shoulder. Never have the circling years found voice,
nor the redeemed wilderness made answer.

"Possibly it might be done," I admitted slowly. "'T is scarce farther
than I swam just now, and he is neither weary nor wounded."

We all realised it was a useless peril to remain there longer, and I
sat at the helm and watched, while Burns, who developed considerable
knowledge in such matters, fitted the heavy sail in place. With the
North Star over the water for our guidance, I headed the blunt nose of
the boat due eastward into the untracked waters.

I confess that my memory was still lingering upon De Croix, and my eyes
turned often enough along our foam-flecked wake in vague wonderment at
his fate. It was Mademoiselle who laid hand softly on my knee at last,
and aroused my attention to her.

"Why did you tell Sister Celeste that you came to Dearborn seeking Elsa
Matherson?" she questioned, her clear eyes intently reading my face.

"I had even forgotten that I mentioned it," I answered, surprised at
this query at such a time. "But it is strictly true. While upon his
death-bed Elsa Matherson's father wrote to mine,--they were old
comrades in the great war,--and I was sent hither to bring the orphan
girl eastward. I sought her as a brother might seek a sister he had
never seen, Mademoiselle; yet have failed most miserably in my mission."

"How failed?"

"In that I have found no trace of the girl, and beyond doubt she
perished in the massacre. I know not how, but I have been strangely
baffled and misled from the first in my search for her, and it was all
to no purpose."

For the first time since I had fallen dripping into the boat, a s