ed; but, like the fly in the spider's lines, he
became more hopelessly bound at every move he made. Moreover against
his will he was realizing that he could no longer deceive himself about
Alice. He loved her, and the love was mastering him body and soul. Such
a confession carries with it into an honest masculine heart a sense of
contending responsibilities. In Beverley's case the clash was
profoundly disturbing. And now he clutched the thought that Alice was
not a mere child of the woods, but a daughter of an old family of
cavaliers!

With coat buttoned close against the driving wind, he strode toward the
fort in one of those melodramatic moods to which youth in all climes
and times is subject. It was like a slap in the face when Captain Helm
met him at the stockade gate and said:

"Well, sir, you are good at hiding."

"Hiding! what do you mean, Captain Helm?" he demanded, not in the
mildest tone.

"I mean, sir, that I've been hunting you for an hour and more, over the
whole of this damned town. The English and Indians are upon us, and
there's no time for fooling. Where are all the men?"

Beverley comprehended the situation in a second. Helm's face was
congested with excitement. Some scouts had come in with the news that
Governor Hamilton, at the head of five or six hundred soldiers and
Indians, was only three or four miles up the river.

"Where are all the men?" Helm repeated.

"Buffalo hunting, most of them," said Beverley.

"What in hell are they off hunting buffaloes for?" raged the excited
captain.

"You might go to hell and see," Beverley suggested, and they both
laughed in sheer masculine contempt of a predicament too grave for
anything but grim mirth.

What could they do? Even Oncle Jazon and Rene de Ronville were off with
the hunters. Helm sent for M. Roussillon in the desperate hope that he
could suggest something; but he lost his head and hustled off to hide
his money and valuables. Indeed the French people all felt that, so far
as they were concerned, the chief thing was to save what they had. They
well knew that it mattered little which of the two masters held over
them--they must shift for themselves. In their hearts they were true to
France and America; but France and America could not now protect them
against Hamilton; therefore it would be like suicide to magnify
patriotism or any other sentiment objectionable to the English. So they
acted upon M. Roussillon's advice and offered no resista