so less likely to quarrel."

"Have the Indians, then, used any open threats?" asked Harry.

"No, not exactly; but through an old man of the tribe, who is well
affected towards us, I have learned that there is a party among them who
seem bent on mischief."

"Then we may expect a row some day or other. That's pleasant!--What
think you, Hammy?" said Harry, turning to his friend.

"I think that it would be anything but pleasant," he replied; "and I
sincerely hope that we shall not have occasion for a row."

"You're not afraid of a fight, are you, Hamilton?" asked Charley.

The peculiarly bland smile with which Hamilton usually received any
remark that savoured of banter overspread his features as Charley spoke,
but he merely replied,--"No, Charley, I'm not afraid."

"Do you know any of the Indians who are so anxious to vent their spleen
on our worthy bourgeois?" asked Harry, as he seated himself on a rocky
eminence commanding a view of the richly-wooded slopes, dotted with huge
masses of rock that had fallen from the beetling cliffs behind the
creek.

"Yes, I do," replied Charley; "and, by the way, one of them--the
ringleader--is a man with whom you are acquainted, at least by name.
You've heard of an Indian called Misconna?"

"What!" exclaimed Harry, with a look of surprise; "you don't mean the
blackguard mentioned by Redfeather, long ago, when he told us his story
on the shores of Lake Winnipeg--the man who killed poor Jacques's young
wife?"

"The same," replied Charley.

"And does Jacques know he is here?"

"He does; but Jacques is a strange, unaccountable mortal. You remember
that in the struggle described by Redfeather the trapper and Misconna
had neither of them seen each other, Redfeather having felled the latter
before the former reached the scene of action--a scene which, he has
since told me, he witnessed at a distance, while rushing to the rescue
of his wife--so that Misconna is utterly ignorant of the fact that the
husband of his victim is now so near him; indeed, he does not know that
she had a husband at all. On the other hand, although Jacques is aware
that his bitterest enemy is within rifle-range of him at this moment, he
does not know him by sight; and this morning he came to me, begging that
I would send Misconna on some expedition or other, just to keep him out
of his way."

"And do you intend to do so?"

"I shall do my best," replied Charley; "but I cannot get him out of the
way til