ould not take my eyes from the prostrate form. Again the body
moved--distinctly moved--beyond possibility of fancy, the chest heaving
up and sinking like a man struggling but unable to rise. With the
ghastly dead and the ravening wolves all about, the movement of that
wounded man was strangely terrifying and my knees knocked with fear, as
I ran to his aid.

The man was an Indian, but his face I could not see; for one hand
staunched a wound in his head and the other gripped a knife with which
he had been defending himself. My first thought was that he must be a
Nor'-Wester, or his body would not have escaped the common fate; but if
a Nor'-Wester, why had he been left on the field? So I concluded he was
one of the camp-followers, who had joined our forces for plunder and
come to a merited end. Still he was a man; and I stooped to examine him
with a view to getting him on my horse and taking him back to the camp.

At first he was unconscious of my presence. Gently I tried to remove the
left hand from his forehead, but at the touch, out struck the right
hand in vicious thrusts of the hunting-knife, one blind cut barely
missing my arm.

"Hold, man!" I cried, "I'm no foe, but a friend!" and I caught the right
arm tightly.

At the sound of my voice, the left hand swung out revealing a frightful
gash; and the next thing I knew, his left arm had encircled my neck like
the coil of a strangler, five fingers were digging into the flesh of my
throat and Le Grand Diable was making frantic efforts to free his right
hand and plunge that dagger into me. The shock of the discovery threw me
off guard, and for a moment there was a struggle, but only for a moment.
Then the wounded man fell back, writhing in pain, his face contorted
with agony and hate. I do not think he could see me. He must have been
blind from that wound. I stood back, but his knife still cut the air.

"Le Grand Diable! Fool!" I said, "I will not harm you! I give you the
white man's word, I will not hurt you!"

The right arm fell limp and still. Had I, by some strange irony, been
led to this spot that I might witness the death of my foe? Was this the
end of that long career of evil?

"Le Grand Diable!" I cried, going a pace nearer, which seemed to bring
back the ebbing life. "Le Grand Diable! You cannot stay here among the
wolves. Tell me whereto find Miriam and I'll take you back to the camp!
Tell me and no one shall harm you! I will save you!"

The thin lips mo