" said Shif'less Sol. "He'll stick to his canoe an' stop to
preach to Injuns who mebbe will torture him to death, but he has my
respeck an' ef I kin do anything fur him I want to do it."
"So would I," said Jim Hart heartily. "I'm a pow'ful good cook ez you
know, Sol, bein' ez you've et in your time more'n a hundred thousand
pounds uv my victuals, an' I'd like to cook him all the buffaler an' deer
steak he could eat between here an' New Or-lee-yuns, no matter how long he
wuz on the way."
"An' me," said Tom Ross simply, wishing to add his mite, "I'd like to be
on hand when any Injun tried to hurt him. That Injun would think he'd been
struck by seven different kinds uv lightnin', all at the same time."
The fire was built on a hillock that rose above the flood. It had been
kindled with the greatest difficulty, even by such experienced woodsmen as
the five, but, once well started, it consumed the damp brush and
spluttered and blazed merrily. Gradually a great bed of coals formed and
threw out a temperate, grateful heat. All were glad enough, after the
storm and the cold and the wet, to sit around it and to feel the glow upon
their faces. It warmed the blood.
The hill formed an island in the flood and "The Galleon" and the canoe
were tied to trees only thirty or forty feet away. Far to the west
extended the great sweep of the river and around them the flooded forest
was still dripping with the night's rain.
"I think I'm willin' to rest a while," said Shif'less Sol. "That wuz a
pow'ful lively time we had last night, but thar wuz enough o' it an' I'd
like to lay by to-day, now that our friend's canoe hez been fixed."
Father Montigny glanced up in surprise.
"My canoe repaired!" he said. "I don't understand."
"'Twas only a little job fur fellers like us," said the shiftless one.
"She's all done, an' your canoe, ez good ez new, is tied up thar alongside
o' our 'Gall-yun.'"
"You are very good to me," said the priest raising his hands slightly in
the manner of benediction, "and I suggest, since we have a comfortable
place here, that we remain on this little island until to-morrow. Do you
know what day it is?"
"No," replied Paul, "to tell you the truth, Father Montigny, we've been
through so much and we've had to think so hard of other things that we've
lost count of the days. I'd scarcely know how to guess at it."
"It's the Holy Sabbath," said Father Montigny. "You, I have no doubt,
belong to a church other th
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