he is the master spirit, but back of him are the allied tribes of
the south, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, even Osages from the west, and
others, and in addition there are two hundred desperate white men drawn
from all nations. Alvarez has promised to lead them to great spoil and
plunder. He is the buccaneer chief now and they will follow him. At
night-fall they surprised a French trading schooner tied to the shore for
safety, slaughtered those on board, and have now drawn the schooner
across the mouth of the bayou to shut you in. The vessel also carries four
bronze nine pounders which they will use against you. Outside in the
Mississippi is a great fleet of Indian war-canoes which has been above you
in the stream."

Adam Colfax paled a little.

"It seems," he said, "that when we thought we were pulling to safety we
were merely entering a trap."

"It was a trap," said Henry with energy, "but we're strong enough to break
any trap into which we may fall."

"That's so," said Adam Colfax.

"You may ask me how I knew all this," continued the priest. "I tell you
not what I have heard, but what I have seen. I was with the Choctaws, and
I sought to dissuade them from this campaign upon which they were
marching. I told them that Alvarez was mad with ambition and
disappointment, that he had rebelled against lawful authority, that he was
an outlaw and buccaneer, and that he could not keep his promises. My words
availed nothing. I continued with them, hoping still to dissuade them and
the other bands that met them, but still I failed.

"I was yet with the tribe when they met Alvarez and the wicked renegade,
the one Wyatt, and their men. Alvarez would have used force, he would have
driven me from the camp with heavy blows; even this, the white man who has
inherited Holy Church would have done, but the red men, born savages,
would not let him. Although they would not listen to me they let me stay,
unharmed. I witnessed, or rather heard, their attack upon you last night,
and their repulse has made them only the more eager for your destruction.
It has also united them the more firmly."

"When do you think they will attack us, Father Montigny?" asked Henry.

"That I cannot tell. I heard their plans, and I deemed it my duty to warn
you. A guard, one whom I have converted to our faith, let me slip away and
here I am."

"And our debt to you is still growing," said Henry. "As for myself, I
think the attack will come to-night, when