heir trail and are coming forward at a
gallop.

"There 's Grant, the Plain Ranger, Governor! Let me shoot him," pleads
one Hudson's Bay man.

"God have mercy on our souls!" mutters one of the colonists, counting the
foe; "but we are all dead men."

All the world knows the rest. At a knoll where grew some trees, a spot
now known in Winnipeg on North Main Street as Seven Oaks, Grant, the
Ranger, sent a half-breed, Boucher, forward to parley.

"What do you want?" demands Semple.

"We want our fort!"

"Go to your fort, then!"

"Rascal! You have destroyed our fort!"

"Dare you to speak so to me? Arrest him!"

Boucher slips from his saddle. The Plain Rangers think he has been shot.
Instantaneously from both sides crashes musketry fire. Semple falls with
a broken thigh. Before Grant can control his murderous crew or obtain
aid for the wounded governor, a scamp of a half-breed has slashed the
fallen man to death. Two or three Hudson's Bay men escape through the
long grass {395} and swim across Red River. Two or three more save
themselves by instant surrender. For the rest of the twenty-seven, they
lie where they have fallen. They are stripped, mutilated, cut to pieces.
Only one Nor'wester is killed, only one wounded.

Later, in order to save the lives of the settlers, Fort Douglas is
surrendered. For a second time the colonists are dispersed. Before
going down Red River in flatboats two of the Hudson's Bay people go out
with Chief Peguis by night and bury the dead; but they have no time to
dig deep graves, and a few days later the wolves have ripped up the
bodies.

Near Lake Winnipeg the fleeing colonists meet the Northwest partners with
their one hundred and seventy men. No need to announce what the
spectacle of the terrified colonists means. A wild whoop rends the air.
"Thank Providence it was all over before we came," writes one devout
Nor'wester; "for we intended to storm the fort." Both crews pause. The
Nor'westers interrogate the settlers. Semple's private papers are
seized. Also, two Hudson's Bay men who took part in the Seven Oaks fight
are arrested, to be carried on down to Northwest headquarters on Lake
Superior. Then the settlers go on to Lake Winnipeg.

At the various camping places on the way down to Fort William, those two
Hudson's Bay prisoners overhear strange threats. It is night on the Lake
of the Woods. Voices of Northwest partners sound through the dark. They
are talkin