n affliction; and an
affliction against which, since the boats had parted company, there
was no redress. He was conceited, selfish, tyrannical, and
inordinately lazy. He never took a hand with the paddle, but would
compel the others to work, or to idle, as the freak took him.
He docked the crew's allowance but fed himself complacently on more
than full rations, proving this to be his due by discourse on the
innate superiority of Frenchmen over Canadians, Englishmen or
Indians. He would sit by the hour bragging of his skill with the
gun, his victories in love, his feats of strength--baring his
chest, arms, legs, and inviting the company to admire his muscles.
He jested from sunrise until sundown, and never made a jest that did
not hurt. Worst of all was it when he schooled le Chameau to sing
his obscenities after him, line for line.

"No, no, I beg you, monsieur," the little fellow would protest,
"c'est--c'est sale!"--and would blush like a girl.

"_Sale_, you dog? I'll teach you--" A blow would follow.
M. Barboux was getting liberal with his blows. Once he struck
Muskingon. Menehwehna growled ominously, and the growl seemed to
warn not only Barboux but Muskingon, who for the moment had looked
murderous.

John guessed that some tie, if not of blood-relationship, at least of
strong affection, bound the two Indians together.

For himself, as soon as his wound allowed him to sit upright, which
it did on the second day--the bullet having glanced across his ribs
and left but its ugly track in the thin flesh covering them--the
monotony of the woods and the ceaseless glint of the water were a
drug which he could summon at will and so withdraw himself within a
stupor untroubled by Barboux or his boastings. He suffered the man,
but saw no necessity for heeding him.

He had observed two or three hanks of fishing-line dangling from the
thin strips of cedar which sheathed the canoe within, a little below
the gunwale. They had hooks attached, and from the shape of these
hooks he judged them to belong to the Indians. He unhitched one of
the lines, and more for the sake of killing time than for any set
purpose, began to construct a gaudy salmon-fly with a few frayed
threads of cloth from his tunic. After a minute or two he was aware
of Muskingon watching him with interest, and by signs begged for a
feather from the young Indian's top-knot. Muskingon drew one forth
and, under instructions, plucked off a piece of fluf