appear to you that at the left-hand side of that tuft of osiers
the leaves no longer look natural?"

The young man pushed the reeds on one side, and gazed for a while
attentively.

"I could swear it," said he, "but--" He stopped, and looked in another
direction.

"Well! do you see anything?"

"I see, between that willow and the aspen, about ten feet from the tuft
of osiers, a bush which certainly was not there just now."

"Ah! see what it is to live far from towns;--the least points of the
landscape fix themselves in the memory, and become precious indications.
You are born to live the life of a hunter, Fabian!"

Pepe levelled his rifle at the bush indicated by Fabian.

"Pepe understands it at once," said Bois-Rose; "he knows, like me, that
the Indians have employed their time in cutting down branches to form a
temporary shelter; but I think two of us at least may teach them a few
stratagems that they do not yet know. Leave that bush to Fabian, it
will be an easy mark for him; fire at the branches whose leaves are
beginning to wither--there is an Indian behind them. Fire in the
centre, Fabian!"

The two rifles were heard simultaneously, and the false bush fell,
displaying a red body behind the leaves, while the branches which had
been added were convulsively agitated. All three then threw themselves
on the ground, and a discharge of balls immediately flew over their
heads, covering them with leaves and broken branches, while the war-cry
of the Indians sounded in their ears.

"If I do not deceive myself, they are now but fifteen," said Bois-Rose,
as he quitted his horizontal posture, and knelt on the ground.

"Be still!" added he. "I see the leaves of an aspen trembling more than
the wind alone could cause them to do. It is doubtless one of those
fellows who has climbed up into the tree."

As he spoke, a bullet struck one of the trunks of which the islet was
composed, and proved that he had guessed rightly.

"Wagh!" said the Canadian, "I must resort to a trick that will force him
to show himself."

So saying, he took off his cap and coat, and placed them between the
branches, where they could be seen. "Now," said he, "if I were fighting
a white soldier, I would place myself by the side of my coat, for he
would fire at the coat; with an Indian I shall stand behind it, for he
will not be deceived in the same manner, and will aim to one side of it.
Lie down, Fabian and Pepe, and in a minute you shall h