ion of suspense the elder of the brothers consulted a compass, as
he had done more than once that day.

"I thought I heard something," said the boy, shouldering his rifle and
turning westward, "but I couldn't say what."

"Ah, _quelle barbarie_!" exclaimed the woman, with a sigh, half
petulance, half relief.

She seemed less the kind of timber that was to build up the great
structure of western civilization than did the others,--all unfitted
for its hardships and privation and labor. Her gray serge gown was worn
with a sort of subtle elegance hardly discounted by the plainness of the
material and make. The long, pointed waist accented the slender grace of
her figure; the skirt had folds clustered on the hips that gave a sort
of fullness to the drapery and suggested the charm of elaborate costume.
She wore a hood on her head,--a large calash, which had a curtain that
hung about her shoulders. This was a dark red, of the tint called Indian
red, and as she pushed it back and turned her face, realizing that the
interval of watching was over, the fairness of her complexion, the
beauty of her dark, liquid eyes, the suggestion of her well-ordered,
rich brown hair above her high forehead, almost regal in its noble cast,
the perfection of the details of her simple dress, all seemed infinitely
incongruous with her estate as a poor settler's wife, and the fact that
since dawn and for days past she had, with the little all she possessed,
fled from the pursuit of savage Indians. She returned with a severe
glance the laughing grimace of the boy, with which, despite his own fear
but a moment ago, he had, in the mobility of the moods of youth,
decorated his countenance.

"If it were not for you, Hamish," she said to him, "I should not be so
terrified. I have seen Indians many a time,--yes,--and when they were
on the war-path, too. But to add to their fury by an act of defiance on
our part! It is fatal--they have only to overtake us."

"What was I to do, Odalie?" said Hamish MacLeod, suddenly grave, and
excitedly justifying himself. "There was that red Injun, as still as a
stump. I thought he was a stump--it was nearly dark. And I heard the
wild turkey gobbling,--you heard it yourself, you sent me out to get it
for supper,--you said that one more meal on buffalo meat would be the
death of you,--and it was nearly dark,--and--gobble--gobble--gobble--so
appetizing. I can hear it yet."

With an expression of terror she caught suddenly