ndeed weary.
"There are never signs till the uprising is on us. You know that. I
have done what I could. The guards are trebled, and we sleep on our
swords. Montlivet, tell me. What have you been doing in the west?"

I had expected him to finesse to this question. I liked it that he
gave it to me with a naked blade.

"I have been forming an Indian league," I answered bluntly.

He nodded. "I know. There have been rumors. Then I knew what you did
with the St. Lawrence tribes last year. Why did you not tell me when
you went through here last spring?"

I shook my head. "I wished to prove myself. It was an experiment.
Then I desired a free hand."

"You did not wish my help?"

"I wished to test the ground without entangling you. If I
failed,--why, I was nothing but a fur trader. There had been no talk,
no explanations, nothing. A trader went west; he returned. That would
end it."

"But if you succeeded?"

I bowed to him. "If I succeeded I intended to come to you for help and
consultation, monsieur."

I saw his eyes gleam. The man loved war, and his imagination was
fertile as a jungle. I knew that already he had taken my small vision,
magnified it a thousand-fold, and peopled it with fantasies. That was
the man's mind. Fortunately he had humor, and that saved him,--that
and letter-writing. He tapped out his emotion through noisy
finger-tips.

"How much are you ready to tell me now?" he asked.

"Everything,--if you have patience." I rested my well arm on the
table, and went carefully--almost day by day--over the time that
separated me from May. I gave detail but not embroidery. Facts even
if they be numerous can be disposed of shortly, if fancy and philosophy
be put aside. So my recital did not take me long.

The gleam was still in Cadillac's eyes. "And, you think the western
tribes would follow you now?"

"They would have followed me a week ago."

He heard something sinister in my reply. "You could have wiped out
that Seneca camp," he meditated.

"Yes, it could have been done."

He gave me a look. "The Malhominis wished it?"

"Yes."

"And you thought it unwise?"

"They could not have done it without a leader. And I could not lead
them. I had to come here."

He smote the table till the candles flared. "You were wrong. You were
wrong. You could have gathered your forces and had the attack over in
a week,--in less time. Then you could have brought your troops with
yo