understand it, her gay mood was so
genuine. She glanced up again, and at the sight of the settling lines
about his mouth and the fading sparkle in his eyes, her own eyes,
while the smile still hovered, grew moist.

"I am sorry," she said softly,--"very, very sorry."

He sat near by, and fingered the flowers in the birch cup. They were
both silent. Finally she spoke.

"M'sieu."

He looked down.

"It may be that you think that--that I do not understand. It is not
that, M'sieu. But when I think about it, and the sadness comes, I
know, some way, that it is going to come out all right. We are
prisoners, but other people have been prisoners, too. I have heard of
many of them from Father Dumont. He himself has suffered among the
Oneidas. I--I cannot believe it, even when it seems the darkest."

"I hope you are right, Mademoiselle. I, too, have felt that there must
be a way. And at the worst, they will not dare to hurt Father Claude
and--you." And under his breath he added, "Thank God."

"They will not dare to hurt you, M'sieu. They must not do it." She
rose and stood before him. "When I think of that,--that you, who have
done so much that I might be safe, are in danger, I feel that it would
be cowardly for me to go away without you. You would not have left me,
on the river. I know you would have died without a thought. And I--if
anything should happen, M'sieu; if Father Claude and I should be set
free, and--without you--I could never put it from my thoughts. I
should always feel that I--that you--no no, M'sieu. They cannot do
it."

She shook away a tear, and looked at him with an honest, fearless
gaze. It was the outpouring of a grateful heart, true because she
herself was true, because she could not accept his care and sacrifice
without a thought of what she owed him.

"You forget," he said gently, "that it was not your fault. They could
have caught me as easily if you had not been there. It is a soldier's
chance, Mademoiselle. He must take what life brings, with no
complaint. It is the young man's mistake to be restless, impatient.
For the rest of us, why, it is our life."

"But, M'sieu, you are not discouraged? You have not given up?"

"No, I have not given up." He rose and looked into her eyes. "I have
come through before; I may again. If I am not to get through, I shall
fight them till I drop. And then, I pray God, I may die like a
soldier."

He turned away and went into the hut. He was in the hardest mome