d he patted his hand upon the bench most
merrily. "There are but two reasons to my mind important enough to
lure a French gentleman into such a hole as this, and send him
wandering through your backwoods,--either war or love, Monsieur; and I
know of no war that calleth me."

Love, as he thus spoke of it, was almost an unknown term to me then;
and, in truth, I scarcely grasped the full significance of his meaning.

"You seek some lady, then, at Fort Dearborn?" I asked, for his tone
seemed to invite the inquiry.

"Ay!" with quickened enthusiasm; "'tis there Toinette has hidden
herself for this year or more,--Toinette, on my word as a French
soldier, the fairest maid of Montreal. I have just discovered her
whereabouts, yet I shall win her ere I traverse these trails again, or
I am not Villiers de Croix."

"I travel thither to bring back a little orphan child with me," I
explained simply, in response to his look, "and will most gladly aid
you where I can."

Before he could answer, Hawkins, a gaunt, silent frontiersman, together
with Sam, entered the room, bearing between them our evening meal.

CHAPTER IV

CAPTAIN WELLS OF FORT WAYNE

We tarried at the table a considerable time,--not because of any
tempting variety in the repast, as the food furnished was of the
coarsest, but for the sake of companionship, and because we discovered
much of passing interest to converse about. De Croix had travelled
widely, and had seen a great variety of life both in camp and court.
He proved a vivacious fellow, full of amusing anecdote,--a bottle of
rich wine drawn from his own private stock so stimulating his
imagination that I had little to do but sit and listen. Yet he
contrived to learn from me,--how, I hardly know,--the simple story of
my life, and, indeed, assumed a certain air of patronizing superiority,
boasting unduly of his wider experience and achievements in a way that
somewhat nettled me at last, as I began to comprehend that he was
merely showing off his genteel graces the better to exhibit his
contempt for my provincial narrowness. I did not permit this really to
anger me, for our views upon such matters were totally different, and I
could not help feel admiration for the brilliant and audacious fellow.

The black waited upon us while we ate and drank, moving noiselessly
across the rough floor, so keenly observant of his master's slightest
wish as to convince me the latter possessed a temper which upon