, I, too, was moving off, when the voice, that sounded
like the dropping golden notes of a cremona, called out in tones of
vibrating alarm:

"Don't--don't go! Priest! Priest! Father! It's you I'm speaking to. I've
heard every word!"

Father Holland and I were too much amazed to do aught but gape from each
other to the dark window. We could now see the outlines of a white face
there.

"If you'd please put one bench on top of another, and balance a bucket
on that, I think I could get down," pleaded the low, thrilling voice.

"An' in the name of the seven wonders of creation, what for would you be
getting down?" asked the astonished priest.

"Oh! Hurry! Are you getting the bench?" coaxed the voice.

"Faith an' we're not! And we have no thought of doing such a thing!"
began the good man with severity.

"Then, I'll jump," threatened the voice.

"And break your pretty neck," answered the ungallant father with
indignation.

There was a rustling of skirts being gathered across the window sill and
outlines of a white face gave place to the figure of a frail girl
preparing for a leap.

"Don't!" I cried, genuinely alarmed, with a mental vision of shattered
statuary on the ground. "Don't! I'm getting the benches," and I piled
them up, with a rickety bucket on top. "Wait!" I implored, stepping up
on the bottom bench. "Give me your hand," and as I caught her hands, she
leaped from the window to the bucket, and the bucket to the ground, with
a daintiness, which I thought savored of experience in such escapades.

"What do you mean, young woman?" demanded Father Holland in anger. "I'll
have none of your frisky nonsense! Do you know, you baggage, that you
are delaying this young man in a matter that is of life-and-death
importance? Tell me this instant, what do you want?"

"I want to save that woman, Miriam! You're both so slow and stupid!
Come, quick!" and she caught us by the arms. "There's a skiff down among
the rushes in the flats. I can guide you to it. Cross the river in it!
Oh! Quick! Quick! Some of the Hudson's Bay brigades have already
passed!"

"How do you know?" we both demanded as in one breath.

"I'm Frances Sutherland. My father is one of the Selkirk settlers and he
had word that they would pass to-night! Oh! Come! Come!"

This girl, the daughter of a man who was playing double to both
companies! And her service to me would compel me to be loyal to him!
Truly, I was becoming involved in a way that complic