given the alarm. Soon afterwards the Indians
arrived there; but finding everything in readiness to give them a warm
reception, they retired at once, preferring to wait their opportunity
rather than have a fair stand-up fight with the white men. About an
hour after they had retired, Big Waller, Hawkswing, and the artist, came
tearing towards the fort, and were at once admitted.

They had nothing new to tell. They had met together by accident, as the
others had done, on nearing the fort, and would have been in sooner, had
not Big Waller been obliged to take charge of poor Bertram, who, owing
to the suddenness and violence of all these recent events in savage
life, had got into a muddled condition of mind that rendered him
peculiarly helpless. But they knew nothing of March Marston--they had
expected to find him there before them.

As March was well mounted, and known to be well qualified to take care
of himself, his non-arrival threw his friends into a state of the utmost
anxiety and suspense. They waited a couple of hours, in order to give
him a chance of coming in, hoping that he might have merely been
detained by some trifling accident, such as having lost his way for a
time. But when, at the end of that period, there was still no sign of
him, they gave up all hope of his arriving, and at once set out to sweep
the whole country round in search of him, vowing in their hearts that
they would never return to Pine Point settlement without him if he were
alive.

McLeod tried to persuade them to remain at the fort for a few days, but,
feeling sympathy with them, he soon ceased to press the matter. As for
the wretched chief of the fort, Macgregor--the excitement of the recent
transactions being over--he had returned to his bosom friend, and
bitterest enemy, the bottle, and was at that time lying in a state of
drivelling idiocy in his private chamber.

A few days after quitting the fort, Bounce and Gibault, who chanced to
be riding considerably in advance of their companions, halted on the top
of a ridge and began to scan the country before them. In the midst of
their observations, Bounce broke the silence with a grunt.

"Fat now?" inquired his companion.

"What now?" replied Bounce contemptuously. "Use yer eyes now; d'ye see
nothin'?"

"Non, no ting."

"That comes o' the want of obsarvation, now," said Bounce in a grave,
reproachful tone. "Ye shouldn't ought to be so light-headed, lad. If
ye wos left to y