en you
come, an', now, vat is to come nixt?"

Poor Gibault spoke fast, and perspired very much, and looked wild and
haggard, for his nature was sensitive and sympathetic, and the idea of
his comrades meeting with such a horrible fate was almost too much for
him.

Bounce's honest face assumed an expression of deep anxiety, for, fertile
though his resources usually were, he could not at that moment conceive
how it was possible for two unarmed men, either by force or by
stratagem, to rescue five comrades who were securely bound, and guarded
by forty armed warriors, all of whom were trained from infancy in the
midst of alarms that made caution and intense watchfulness second nature
to them.

"It looks bad," said Bounce, sitting down on a stone, clasping his hard
hands together, and resting an elbow on each knee. "Sit ye down,
Gibault. We'll think a bit, an' then go to work. That's wot we'll do--
d'ye see?"

"Non, I don't see," groaned Gibault. "Vat can ve do? Two to forty! If
it was only swords ve had to fight vid--Hah! But, alas! we have
noting--dey have everyting."

"True, lad, force won't do," returned Bounce; "an' yit," he added,
knitting his brows, "if nothin' else 'll do, we'll try at least _how
much_ force 'll do."

After a short pause Bounce resumed, "Wos they tied very tight, Gibault?"

"Oui. I see de cords deep in de wrists, an' poor Redhand seem to be
ver' moch stunned; he valk as if hims be dronk."

"Drunk!" exclaimed Bounce, suddenly springing up as if he had received
an electric shock, and seizing his companion by both shoulders, while,
for a moment, he gazed eagerly into his eyes; then, pushing him
violently away, he turned round and darted along the bank of the river,
crying, as he went, "Come along, Gibault; I'll tell ye wot's up as we
go!"

The astonished Canadian followed as fast as he could, and, in an
exclamatory interjectional sort of way, his friend explained the plan of
rescue which he had suddenly conceived, and which was as follows:--

First, he proposed to go back to the _cache_ at the foot of the tall
tree, and dig up the keg of brandy, with which he resolved to proceed to
the camp of the Indians, and, by some means or other, get the whole clan
to drink until they should become intoxicated. Once in this condition,
he felt assured they could be easily circumvented.

Gibault grasped at this wild plan as a drowning man is said to grasp at
a straw, and lent his aid right willi