gave
the word to start. Grylls climbed in by the rear step, and sat next to
Nell with a dogged air. This brought him opposite Garth, and very near
Natalie. Albert and the half-breed following him, they started. Xavier,
covered with dirt, snivelling, and nursing a split lip, was as ugly as
a gargoyle.

Garth saw a way out in the vacant place beside Paul. "The front seat
would be more comfortable for you; it's wider," he said to Natalie, loud
enough for all to hear. "Paul," he called, "have you room beside you for
the young lady? She wants to hear some more stories."

Paul, delighted, immediately pulled up, and held out a hand. Natalie
climbed over the mail-bags and took her place beside him. In crossing,
she gave Garth's hand a grateful squeeze; and he returned to his place
with a swelling heart, ready for Nick Grylls and any like him. But he
would not allow himself to depart from the course he had laid out. In
the past he had been compelled to conciliate, to flatter, to mould such
men as Grylls for the advantage of the _Leader_; and he could certainly
do it once more for the sake of Natalie. Nick faced him with a venomous
eye, but was unable to make an opening for more trouble.

Old Paul, whenever they came to a hill and he could allow his four to
walk, turned around; and half to Natalie, half to Garth, delivered himself
of one of his characteristic stories. Neither was Nick impatient with his
monologues to-day; for when Paul turned Natalie half turned also; and then
Nick could watch her face.

Garth had asked the old man about the half-breed rebellion.

"Sure, I was through it all," he began. "I was buildin' boats in Prince
George; and scoutin'. Upwards of three months we hadn't no news from
outside and the settlement was in a continuous state of scare. It was
supposed the Crees had been joined by the Montana Indians; and all said
we was cut off on the south. Women, children and cattle was crowded
together in the stockade; but I didn't bring my family in. My old woman
weren't afraid; and somepin' told me it was just one of these here
panics like.

"Well, one day up came word to the commandant to send a force down the
river to Fort Pitt, as they called it, to jine with General Middleton.
Then it was Smiley here, and Smiley there, and they couldn't do nothin'
without Smiley. I started down the river at last with two work boats
carryin' fifty men under Major Lewis and Cap'n Caswell. It was a Saturday
night, I mind