life appeared there. It seemed to sleep
with the forests around it, its river gate shut close-lidded against
the day, its empty flagstaff a needle of gold trembling upon the
morning sky.

Menehwehna had seated himself, his gun across his knees, upon a
fallen trunk; and John, turning, met his eyes.

"Do we cross over?"

"To-day, or perhaps to-morrow. I wished you to see it first."

"But why?"

"Does my brother ask why? Well, then, I was afraid."

"Were you afraid that I might wish to go back? Answer me,
Menehwehna--By whose wish am I here at all?"

"When I was a young man," answered Menehwehna, "in the days when I
went wooing after Meshu-kwa, I would often be jealous, and this
jealousy would seize me when we were alone together. 'She is loving
enough now,' I said; 'but how will it be when other young men are
around her?' This thought tormented me so that many times it drove
me to prove her, pretending to be cold and purposely throwing her in
the company of others who were glad enough--for she had many suitors.
Then I would watch with pain in my heart, but secretly, that my shame
and rage might be hidden."

John eyed him for a moment in wonder. "For what did you bring me
this long way from Michilimackinac?" he asked. "Was it not to speak
at need for you and your nation?"

"For that, but not for that only. Brother, have you never loved a
friend so that you felt his friendship worthless to you unless you
owned it all? Have you never felt the need on you to test him,
though the test lay a hundred leagues away? So far have I brought
you, O Netawis, to show you your countrymen. In a while the fort
yonder will wake, and you shall see them on the parapet in their red
coats, and if the longing come upon you to return to them, we will
cross over together and I will tell my tale. They will believe it.
Look! Will you be an Englishman again?"

"Let us turn back," answered John wearily. "That life is gone from
me for ever."

"Say to me that you have no wish to go."

"I had a wish once," said John, letting the words fall slowly as his
eyes travelled over the walls of the fort. "It seemed to me then
that no wish on earth could be dearer. Many things have helped to
kill it, I think." He passed a hand over his eyes and let it drop by
his side. "I have no wish to leave you, Menehwehna."

The Indian stood up with a short cry of joy and laid a hand on his
shoulder.

"No, my friend," John continued in t