rd these boys. If one
moves you are to shoot him. Remember that order, boys; remember also
that my scouts always obey. Be careful, Pierre, to let none of them
escape to give the alarm. Join us when you hear firing. Come on, the
rest of you."

In a moment the stealthy company of scouts, leading their ponies, that
stepped carefully, as if they too understood the need of quiet, were
gone. The boys would have thought it all an apparition if the two
stalwart Canadians, Pierre and Antoine, had not been there to prove they
had not been dreaming. The two scouts talked together for a short time
in Canadian French; then, while the one called Pierre stood guard with
his rifle, Antoine picketed their two ponies, and next began to picket
the boys--that is, he tied together the wrists and ankles of each one,
using some long thongs of deer-skin which he and Pierre carried wound
round their waists. When all were securely tied the two scouts stretched
themselves out on the grass, and, paying little further attention to
their trembling prisoners, began talking--none of the boys save Noel
could understand French.

"How long must we wait here with these wretched youngsters?" said
Pierre.

"It will take an hour or more for them to encircle the village; and that
must be done before the attack is made."

"And we must lose it all! It's a shame. Well, they ought to give us a
better chance when--" Here he dropped his voice so low that Noel could
hear no more.

While Noel's ears had been busy, his fingers had not been idle. With the
deftness and patience born of his forest training in Canada he had
worked at the knots that bound him, and had at last succeeded, with the
help of the darkness, in untying them. He lay just at the forest's edge,
and it required only one sudden spring to carry him into the underbrush.

The leap had been a quick one, but Pierre's sharp eyes had seen the
boy's first movement; and as Noel crashed into the bushes, the scout's
knife--which he wore at his belt, and which he could throw as an Indian
throws the tomahawk--glanced through the air, severing a twig close to
the boy's cheek. Noel made two or three long leaps, then crouched down,
and, feeling along the earth, found a heavy stick, and flung it crashing
into the bushes at one side.

Pierre, leaving Antoine to guard the others, had sprung after Noel; he
carried his rifle, which had lain by his side, wrapped in his jacket to
protect it from the dew. It was very