r while in the act of rising
from the body; but his fangs fastened only in the chest of the shaggy
coat, which he wrung with the strength and fury characteristic of his
peculiar species. This new and ferocious attack was fraught with danger
little inferior to that which they had just escaped, and required the
utmost promptitude of action. The young man seized the brute behind the
neck in a firm and vigorous grasp, while he stooped upon the motionless
form over which this novel struggle was maintained, and succeeded in
making himself once more master of the scalping knife. Half choked by
the hand that unflinchingly grappled with him, the savage animal
quitted his hold and struggled violently to free himself. This was the
critical moment. The officer drew the heavy sharp blade, from the
handle to the point, across the throat of the infuriated beast, with a
force that divided the principal artery. He made a desperate leap
upwards, spouting his blood over his destroyer, and then fell gasping
across the body of his master. A low growl, intermingled with faint
attempts to bark, which the rapidly oozing life rendered more and more
indistinct, succeeded; and at length nothing but a gurgling sound was
distinguishable.

Meanwhile the anxious and harassed officers had regained their place of
concealment under the bridge, where they listened with suppressed
breathing for the slightest sound to indicate the approach of the
canoe. At intervals they fancied they could hear a noise resembling the
rippling of water against the prow of a light vessel, but the swelling
cries of the rushing band, becoming at every instant more distinct,
were too unceasingly kept up to admit of their judging with accuracy.

They now began to give themselves up for lost, and many and bitter were
the curses they inwardly bestowed on the Canadian, when the outline of
a human form was seen advancing along the sands, and a dark object upon
the water. It was their conductor, dragging the canoe along, with all
the strength and activity of which he was capable.

"What the devil have you been about all this time, Francois?" exclaimed
the taller officer, as he bounded to meet him. "Quick, quick, or we
shall be too late. Hear you not the blood-hounds on their scent?" Then
seizing the chain in his hand, with a powerful effort he sent the canoe
flying through the arch to the very entrance of the river. The burdens
that had been deposited on the sands were hastily flun