, with a deal of noisy mirth, in burst Laplante and the Sioux
squaw.

"Ho-ho! My knight-errant has opened his eyes! Great sport for the
braves, say I! Fine mouse-play for the cat, ho-ho!" and Louis looked
down at me with laughing insolence, that sent a chill through my veins.
'Twas to save his own scalp the rascal was acting and would have me act
too; but I had no wish to betray him. Striking at her captives and
rudely ordering them out, the Sioux led the way and left Louis to bring
up the rear.

"Leave this, lady," said Louis with an air that might have been
impudence or gallantry; and he grabbed the bundle from Miriam's hand and
threw it over his shoulder at me. This was greeted with a roar of
laughter from the Sioux woman and one look of unspeakable reproach from
Miriam. Whistling gaily and turning back to wink at me, the Frenchman
disappeared in Diable's lodge. For my part, I was puzzled. Did Louis act
from the love of acting and trickery and intrigue? Was he befooling the
daughter of L'Aigle, or me?

They tore down Diable's tepee, stringing the poles on the bronchos
stolen from me and leaving Miriam's white tent with the Sioux. I saw
them mount with my horses to the fore, and they set out at a sharp trot.
From the hoof-beats, I should judge they had not gone many paces, when
one rider seemed to turn back, and Louis ran into the tent where I lay.
I did not utter one word of pleading; but as he stooped for Miriam's
bundle, he whisked out a jack-knife and my heart bounded with a great
hope. I suppose, involuntarily, I must have lifted my arms to have the
bonds severed; for Laplante shook his head.

"No--mine frien'--not now--I not scalp Louis Laplante for your
sake,--no, never. Use your teeth--so!" said he, laying the blade of the
knife in his own teeth to show me how; and he slipped the thing into
hiding under my armpits. "The warriors--they come back to-day," he
warned. "You wait till we are far, then cut quick, or they do worse to
you than to La Robe Noire! I leave one horse for you in the valley
beyond the beaver-dam. Tra-la, comrade, but not forget you. I pay you
back yet all the same," and with a whistle, he had vanished.

I hung upon the Frenchman's words as a drowning sailor to a life-line,
and heard the hoof-beats grow fainter and fainter in the distance,
hardly daring to realize the fearful peril in which I lay. By the light
at the tent opening, I knew it was daybreak. Already the Sioux were
stirring i