r in
the Iroquois study, leaving Mademoiselle to Father Claude. And now you
must return to the camp and get what sleep you can. Heaven knows we
may have little enough between here and Frontenac. Come."

He got up, and walked to the camp, without looking around. Danton
lingered until the Captain's tall figure was blending with the shadows
of the forest, then he went after.

During the following day they got as far as the group of islands at
the head of Lake St. Francis. Wherever possible Menard was now
selecting islands or narrow points for the camp, where, in case of a
night attack, defence would be a simple problem for his few men. Also,
each night, he had the men spread a circle of cut boughs around the
camp at a little distance, so that none could approach without some
slight noise. Another night saw the party at the foot of Petit
Chesneaux, just above Pointe Maligne.

While Perrot was preparing the supper, and Danton, with the
_voyageurs_, was unpacking the bales, Menard took his musket and
strode off into the forest. There was seldom a morning now that the
maid did not have for her breakfast a morsel of game which the
Captain's musket had brought down.

In half an hour he returned, and sought Father Claude; and after a few
low words the two set off. Menard led the way through thicket and
timber growth, over a low hill, and down into a hollow, where a
well-defined Indian trail crossed a brook. Here was a large sugar
maple tree standing in a narrow opening in the thicket. Menard struck
a light, and held up a torch so that the priest could make out a
blaze-mark on the tree.

"See," said Menard. "It is on the old trail. I saw it by the merest
chance."

Father Claude bent forward, with his eyes close to the inscription
that had been painted on the white inner bark, with charcoal and
bear's grease.

"Can you read it?" asked Menard, holding the torch high.

The priest nodded. Both of these men knew the Indian writing nearly as
well as their own French.

[Transcriber's Note: An illustration of picture-writing appears
here in the text with the following caption:

NOTE.--By this picture-writing the Long Arrow (of the clan of the
Beaver) tells the Beaver (of the same clan) that he has taken up
the hatchet against the party in the canoe, and he asks the Beaver
to assist him. The parallel zigzag lines under the long arrow tell
that he is travelling by the river, and the two straight lines
under th