ese that he has two warriors with him. The attack is to be
made in either three or four sleeps, or days, as indicated by the
three finished huts and one unfinished.

The Beaver has seen this sign, as shown by his signature at the
bottom. The seventeen slanting lines under the foot mean that he
has seventeen warriors and they are travelling on foot, southward,
as shown by the fact that the lines slope toward the sun.

That the figures in the canoe are French is shown by their hats.
The priest has no paddle, the maid is represented with long
hair.]

"He does not know of the two men you got at Montreal, M'sieu. He tells
of only six in our canoe."

"No? But that matters little. The Beaver has hurried after him with
nearly a score. They can give us trouble enough. What do you make of
the huts? Do they mean three days or four?"

"It looks to me," said the priest slowly, "that he was interrupted in
drawing the fourth."

"Well,"--Menard threw his torch into the brook, and turned away into
the dusk of the thicket,--"we know enough. The fight will be somewhere
near the head of the rapids. Perhaps they will wait until we get on
into the islands."

"And meantime," said the priest, as they crackled through the
undergrowth, "we shall say nothing of this to Lieutenant Danton or the
maid?"

"Nothing," Menard replied.

In three days more they had passed Rapide Flat, after toiling
laboriously by the Long Sault. They were a sober enough party now,
oppressed with Danton's dogged attention to duty and with the maid's
listless manner.

They were passing a small island the next morning, when Perrot gave a
shout and stopped paddling.

"What is it?" asked Menard, sharply.

Perrot pointed across a spit of land. In the other channel they could
see a bateau just disappearing behind a clump of trees. It was headed
down-stream. Menard swung the canoe about, and they skirted the foot
of the island. Instead of a single bateau there were some half dozen,
drifting light down the river, with a score of _coureurs de bois_ and
_voyageurs_ under the command of a bronzed lieutenant, Du Peron, a
sergeant, and a corporal. The lieutenant recognized Menard, and both
parties landed while the two officers exchanged news.

"Can you spare me a few men?" Menard asked, when they had drawn apart
from the others.

The lieutenant's eye roamed over the group on the beach, where the men
of both parties were mingling.

"How many do yo