nd him responded lustily with the
next line:

"_Trois cavaliers bien montes_--"
"_Trois cavaliers bien montes_--"

chanted the leader again.

"_L'un a cheval et l'autre a pied_--"

came the response; and then the chorus:

"_Lon, lon laridon daine--
Lon, lon laridon dai!_"

The great boat began to move ahead steadily and more swiftly, and bend
after bend of the river was rounded by the rushing prow. None knew this
country, nor wist how far the journey might carry him. None knew as of
certainty that he would ever in this way reach the great Messasebe; or
even if he thought that such would be the case, did any one know how far
that Messasebe still might be. Yet there came a time in the afternoon of
that day, even as the chant of the _voyageurs_ still echoed on the
wooded bluffs, and even as the great birch-bark ship still responded
swiftly to their gaiety, when, on a sudden turn in the arm of the river,
there appeared wide before them a scene for which they had not been
prepared. There, rippling and rolling under the breeze, as though itself
the arm of some great sea, they saw a majestic flood, whose real nature
and whose name each man there knew on the instant and instinctively.

"Messasebe! Messasebe!" broke out the voices of the paddlers.

"Stop the paddles!" cried Du Mesne. "_Voila_!"

John Law rose in the bow of the boat and uncovered his head. It was a
noble prospect which lay before him. His was the soul of the adventurer,
quick to respond to challenge. There was a fluttering in his throat as
he stood and gazed out upon this solemn, mysterious and tremendous
flood, coming whence, going whither, none might say. He gazed and gazed,
and it was long before the shadow crossed his face and before he drew a
sigh.

"Madam," said he, at length, turning until he faced Mary Connynge, "this
is the West. We have chosen, and we have arrived!"

CHAPTER V

MESSASEBE

The boat, now lacking its propelling power, drifted on and out into the
clear tide of the mighty stream. The paddlers were idle, and silence had
fallen upon all. The rush of this majestic flood, steady, mysterious,
secret-keeping, created a feeling of awe and wonder. They gazed and
gazed again, up the great waterway, across to its farther shore, along
its rolling course below, and still each man forgot his paddle, and
still the little ship of New France drifted on, just rocking gently in
the mimic waves which ruffled the