isks for a _bossu_ and
a useless prisoner."

"I did not say that they have tracked us. _Him_ they tracked beyond
a doubt; and at the end he knew they were after him. See--"
Again he lifted the arm of the corpse, and invited the sergeant to
feel its shirt along the ribs and under the armpits. "See you how
stiff it is; that is where the sweat has dried, and men sweat so when
they are in a great hurry. Perhaps he was the last of his company,
and they overtook him here. Now, see again--I tell you they have not
been tracking us, and I will prove it. In the first place I am no
fool, and if one--two--three men have tracked me close (it cannot be
far) a day long without my knowing, it will be the first time in
Menehwehna's life. But let that pass. See these marks; they
overtook him here, and they did with him--so. But where is any mark
on the path behind us? Look well; there is only one path and no
trail in it at all, else I had not cried out as I did. No man has
passed within less time than it takes the moss to grow. Very good;
then whoever killed him followed him up from yonder, and here stopped
and turned back--I think, in a hurry. To place the body so--that is
an Iroquois trick when few and in a hurry; otherwise they take him
away and do worse."

"Iroquois? But _que diable!_ The Six Nations are at peace with us!
Why on earth should the Iroquois meddle with this man, by the dress
of him a _coureur de bois_?"

"And unarmed, too!" pursued Menehwehna with fine irony, "since they
have taken away his gun. Ask me riddles that I can read. The Six
Nations are never at peace; there were five hundred of them back at
Ticonderoga, seated on a hill opposite and only waiting. Yes, and in
peace they have never less reasons than fingers and toes for killing
a man. Your questions are for a child; but _I_ say that the Iroquois
have been here and killed this man, and in a hurry. Now answer me;
if, after killing him, they wished to spy down upon our coming, and
were in a hurry, why did they not take the short way through the
pass?"

"That is simple. Any fresh track of men at the entrance, or close
within it, would warn us back; therefore they would say, 'Let us
climb to the ridge and watch, though it take longer.'"

"Good; now you talk with a clear head, and I have less fear for you.
They may be aloft there, as you say, having drawn us into their trap.
Yet I do not think it, for why should they be expecting us? It i