ut those stolen despatches! We want to know the truth! Were you
drunk, or were you not? Who has them?" Captain McDonell arraigned the
Frenchman with a fire of questions that would have confused any other
culprit but Louis.

"Eric," I whispered, taking advantage of the respite offered by Louis'
examination. "We found Laplante at _Pointe a la Croix_. He was drunk. He
confessed Miriam is held by Diable's squaw. Then we discovered someone
was listening to the confession and pursued the eavesdropper into the
bush. When we came back, Laplante had been carried off. I found one of
my canoemen had your lost fowling-piece, and it was he who had listened
and carried off the drunk sot and tried to send that spear-head into me
at the Sault. 'Twas Diable, Eric! Father Holland, a priest in our
company, told me of the white woman on Lake Winnipeg. Did you find
this--" indicating the spear handle--"there?"

Eric, cold, white and trembling, only whispered an affirmative.

"Was that all?"

"All," he answered, a strange, fierce look coming over his face, as the
full import of my news forced home on him. "Was--was--Laplante--in
that?" he asked, gripping my arm in his unwounded hand with foreboding
force.

"Not that we know of. Only Diable. But Louis is friendly with the Sioux,
and if we only keep him in sight we may track them."

"I'll--keep--him--in sight," muttered Hamilton in low, slow words.

"Hush, Eric!" I whispered. "If we harm him, he may mislead us. Let us
watch him and track him!"

"He's asking leave to go trapping in the Sioux country. Can you go as
trader for your people? To the buffalo hunt first, then, south? I'll
watch here, if he stays; you, there, if he goes, and he shall tell us
all he knows or--"

"Hush, man," I urged. "Listen!"

"Where," Governor McDonell was thundering at Laplante, "where are the
parties that stole those despatches?"

The question brought both Hamilton and myself to the table. We went
forward where we could see Laplante's face without being seen by his
questioners.

"If I answer, Your Honor," began the Frenchman, taking the captain's
bluster for what it was worth and holding out doggedly for his own
rights, "I'll be given leave to trap with the Sioux?"

"Certainly, man. Speak out."

"The parties--that stole--those despatches," Laplante was answering
slowly. At this stage he looked at his interlocutor as if to question
the sincerity of the guarantee and he saw me standing screwing the