meet the sheriff. The terms of capitulation were again stated, and there
was some signing of paper. Of those things my recollection is
indistinct; for I was straining my eyes towards the groups of settlers
inside the walls. When I looked back to the conferring leaders the
silence was so intense a pinfall could have been heard. The keys of the
fort were being handed to the Nor'-Westers and the Hudson's Bay men had
turned away their faces that they might not see. The vanquished then
passed quickly to the barges at the river. Each of the six drunken
fellows, whom I had last seen in the late Governor Semple's office, the
Highlanders who had spied upon me when I visited Fort Douglas but a year
before, the clerks whom I had heard talking that night in the great
hall, and many others with whom I had but a chance acquaintance, filed
down to the river. Seeing all ready, with a North-West clerk at the prow
of each boat to warn away marauders, the men came back for settlers and
wounded comrades. I would have proffered my assistance to some of the
burdened people on the chance of a word with Frances Sutherland, but the
colonists proudly resented any kind offices from a Nor'-Wester. I saw
Louis Laplante come limping out, leaning on the arm of the red-faced
man, whose eye quailed when it met mine. Poor Louis looked sadly
battered, with his head in a white bandage, one arm in a sling, and a
dejected stoop to his shoulders that was unusual with him.

"This is too bad, Louis," said I, hurrying forward. "I forgot to send
word about you. You might as well have stayed in the fort till your
wounds healed. Won't you come back?"

Louis stole a furtive, sheepish glance at me, hung his head and looked
away with a suspicion of moisture about his eyes.

"You always were a brute to fight at Laval! I might trick you at first,
but you always ended by giving me the throw," he answered
disconsolately.

"Nonsense, Louis." I was astounded at the note of reproach in his voice.
"We're even now--let by-gones be by-gones! You helped me, I helped you.
You trapped me into the fort, I tricked you into breaking a mirror and
laying up a peck of trouble for yourself. Surely you don't treasure any
grudge yet?"

He shook his head without looking at me.

"I don't understand. Let us begin over again. Come, forget old scores,
come back to the fort till you're well."

"Pah!" said Louis with a sudden, strange impatience which I could not
fathom. "You understand