th Adele!" He flung open the
door, rushed out, and was about to push off the frail skiff, when some
one sprang past him, and with a blow from a hatchet stove in the side of
the boat.

"It is my boat," said the friar, throwing down the axe and folding his
arms. "I can do what I like with it."

"You fiend! You have ruined us!"

"I have found you and you shall not escape me again."

The hot blood flushed to the soldier's head, and picking up the axe, he
took a quick step forward. The light from the open door shone upon the
grave, harsh face of the friar, but not a muscle twitched nor a feature
changed as he saw the axe whirl up in the hands of a furious man.
He only signed himself with the cross, and muttered a Latin prayer under
his breath. It was that composure which saved his life. De Catinat
hurled down the axe again with a bitter curse, and was turning away from
the shattered boat, when in an instant, without a warning, the great
door of the manor-house crashed inwards, and a flood of whooping savages
burst into the house.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

THE DINING HALL OF SAINTE MARIE.

What had occurred is easily explained. The watchers in the windows at
the front found that it was more than flesh and blood could endure to
remain waiting at their posts while the fates of their wives and
children were being decided at the back. All was quiet at the stockade,
and the Indians appeared to be as absorbed as the Canadians in what was
passing upon the river. One by one, therefore, the men on guard had
crept away and had assembled at the back to cheer the seaman's shot and
to groan as the remaining canoe sped like a bloodhound down the river in
the wake of the fugitives. But the savages had one at their head who
was as full of wiles and resource as Du Lhut himself. The Flemish
Bastard had watched the house from behind the stockade as a dog watches
a rat-hole, and he had instantly discovered that the defenders had left
their post. With a score of other warriors he raised a great log from
the edge of the forest, and crossing the open space unchallenged, he and
his men rushed it against the door with such violence as to crack the
bar across and tear the wood from the hinges. The first intimation
which the survivors had of the attack was the crash of the door, and the
screams of two of the negligent watchmen who had been seized and scalped
in the hall. The whole basement floor was in the hands of the Indians,
an