tered one explosive
word--"Smoke."

"Smoke? I don't see smoke! Where's the fort?"

"No fort," said he.

"You're daft!" I informed him, with the engaging frankness of a master
for a servant. "There--is--a fort, and you know it--we're both
lost--that's more! A fine Indian you are, to get lost!"

Little Fellow scrambled with alacrity to the ground. Picking up two
small switches, he propped them against each other.

"Fort!" he said, laconically, pointing to the switches.

"L'anglais!" he cried, thrusting out his foot, which signified Hudson's
Bay.

"No fort!" he shouted, kicking the switches into the air. "No fort!" and
he looked with speechless disgust at the vacancy.

Now I knew what he meant. Fort Gibraltar had been destroyed by Hudson's
Bay men. We had no alternative but to strike west along the Assiniboine,
on the chance of meeting some Nor'-Westers before reaching the company's
quarters at the Portage. That post, too, might be destroyed; but where
were Hamilton and Father Holland? Danger, or no danger, I must learn
more of the doings in Red River. Also, there were reasons why I wished
to visit the settlers of Fort Douglas. We camped on the south side of
the Assiniboine a few miles from the Red, and Little Fellow went to some
neighboring half-breeds for a canoe.

And a strange story he brought back! A great man, second only to the
king--so the half-breeds said--had come from England to rule over
Assiniboia. He boasted the shock of his power would be felt from
Montreal to Athabasca. He would drive out all Nor'-Westers. This
personage, I afterwards learned, was the amiable Governor Semple, who
succeeded Captain Miles McDonell. Already, as a hunter chases a deer,
had the great governor chased Nor'-Westers from Red River. Did Little
Fellow doubt their word? Where was Fort Gibraltar? Let Little Fellow
look and see for himself if aught but masonry and charred walls stood
where Fort Gibraltar had been! Let him seek the rafters of the
Nor-Westers' fort in the new walls of Fort Douglas! Pembina, too, had
fallen before the Hudson's Bay men. Since the coming of the great
governor, nothing could stand before the English.

But wait! It was not all over! The war drum was beating in the tents of
all the _Bois-Brules_! The great governor should be taught that even the
king's arms could not prevail against the _Bois-Brules_! Was there smoke
of battle? The _Bois-Brules_ would be there! The _Bois-Brules_ had
wrongs to avenge