Fritz, however, would not give up the search, and at last
they came upon the prostrate form of Charles. He lay face downwards
on the frozen ground, which was deeply stained with blood. His
wrist was fearfully gashed by some knife; yet in his fingers he
held still a piece of cloth from the coat of the French fugitive.
It had been literally torn out of his grasp before the man could
get free, and he had nearly hacked off the left hand of the hapless
Charles.

Yet the man had made good his escape, leaving Charles well nigh
dead from loss of blood. But they carried him tenderly back to
their cave, and making a rough sledge for him; then brought him
safely with their prisoner into the camp at Fort William Henry.

Chapter 3: The Life Of Adventure.

"I have seen him once, and he has escaped me. But we shall meet
again, and then the hour of vengeance will have come!"

This was the burden of Charles's words as he lay in his narrow
quarters in the Rangers' huts just without Fort William Henry,
tended by his comrades till his wound healed. The fever which so
often follows upon loss of blood had him in its grip for awhile,
and he would lie and mutter for hours in a state of semi-delirium.

The sympathy of his comrades for this strange man with the tragic
story was deep and widespread. Charles had become a favourite and
an object of interest throughout the ranks of the Rangers, and
great excitement prevailed when it was understood that he had
really seen the man--the Frenchman--who had stood by to see his
wife and family massacred, and had deliberately designed to leave
him, cruelly pinioned, to die a lingering death of agony in the
heart of the lonely forest.

Every day he had visitors to his sickbed, and again and again he
told the tale, described his foe, and told how he knew that the man
recognized him, first taking him--or so he believed--for a spectre
from the tomb, afterwards filled with the most lively terror as he
realized that he was pursued by one who had such dire cause for
bitter vengeance.

"We have met twice!" Charles would say, between his shut teeth.
"Once I was at his mercy, and he showed none. The second time he
fled before me as a man flees from death and hell. The third time
we meet--and meet we shall--it will be that the Lord has delivered
him into my hand. I will strike, and spare not. It will be the hour
appointed of Heaven!"

With the lengthening days and the approach of spring the life of