council at the Long House, and of the escape; but no word was
there concerning Captain la Grange. Another hand had disposed of that
question. Menard sighed as he laid it down, but soon the lines on his
face relaxed. It was not the first time in the history of New France
that a report had told but half the truth; and, after all, the column
had been saved.

He sharpened a quill with his sheath-knife, and began to copy the
report, making further corrections here and there. Something more than
an hour had passed before the work was finished. He rolled up the
document and tied it with a thong of deerskin.

It was still early in the evening, but the fort was as silent as at
midnight. Menard opened the door and walked out a little way. The
lamps were all burning, but no soldiers were to be seen. The barrack
windows were dark. He stepped back into the house, closed the door,
and said in a low voice:--

"Teganouan."

There was a stir in the loft. In a moment the Indian came down the
ladder and stood waiting.

"Teganouan, you heard what the Lieutenant said?"

"Teganouan has ears."

"Very well. I am going to blow out the candle."

The room was dark. The door creaked softly, and a breath of air blew
in upon the Captain as he stood by the table. He felt over the table
for his tinder-box and struck a light. The door was slowly closing;
Teganouan had gone.

* * * * *

Another sun was setting. A single drum was beating loudly as the
little garrison drew up outside the sally-port and presented arms. The
allies and the mission Indians were crowding down upon the beach,
silent, inquisitive,--puffing at their short pipes. For half a
league, from the flat, white beach out over the rose-tinted water
stretched an irregular black line of canoes and bateaux, all
bristling with muskets. The Governor had come. He could be seen
kneeling, all sunburned and ragged but with erect head, in the first
canoe. His canoemen checked their swing, for the beach was close at
hand, and then backed water. The bow scraped, and a dozen hands were
outstretched in aid, but Governor Denonville stepped briskly out into
the ankle-deep water and carried his own pack ashore. A cheer went up
from the little line at the sally-port. Du Luth's _voyageurs_ and
_coureur de bois_ caught it up, and then it swept far out over the
water and was echoed back from the forest.

In the doorway of a hut near the Recollet Chapel s