corner to my own bed beneath the eaves. This
apartment, whose only advantage was privacy, was no more than a narrow
space between the sloping rafters of the roof, unfurnished, but with a
small window in the end, closed by a wooden shutter. A partition of
axe-hewn planks divided this attic into two compartments, thus
composing the priests' sleeping chambers. While I was there they both
occupied the one to the south, Cassion, Chevet, and Pere Allouez
resting in the main room below.

As I lowered the trap in the floor, shutting out the murmur of voices,
I was conscious of no desire to sleep, my mind busily occupied with
possibilities of the morrow. I opened the window, and seated myself on
the floor, gazing out at the night. Below extended the priests'
garden, and beyond the dark gloom of forest depths. A quarter moon
peeped through cloud rifts, and revealed in spectral light the
familiar objects. It was a calm, peaceful scene, yet ghostly in the
silvery gleam and silence--the stumps of half-burned trees assuming
grotesque forms, and the wind tossing branches as though by some demon
hand. Yet in my restless mood that outside world called me and I
leaned forth to see if it was possible to descend.

The way of egress was easy--a mere step to the flat roof of the
kitchen, the dovetailed logs of which afforded a ladder to the ground.
I had no object in such adventure, but a restless impulse urged me,
and, almost before I realized my action, I was upon the ground.
Avoiding the gleam of light which streamed from the open window of the
room below, I crossed the garden, and reached the path leading
downward to the shore. From this point I could perceive the wide sweep
of water, showing silvery in the dim moonlight, and detect the darker
rim of the land. There was fire on the point below the huts, and its
red glare afforded glimpses of the canoes--mere blurred outlines--and
occasionally the figure of a man, only recognizable as he moved.

I was still staring at this dim picture when some noise, other than
the wind, startled me, and I drew silently back behind a great stump
to avoid discovery. My thought was that someone had left the mission
house--Cassion perhaps with final orders to those on the beach--but a
moment later I realized my mistake, yet only crouched lower in the
shadow--a man was advancing from the black concealment of the woods,
and crossing the open space.

He moved cautiously, yet boldly enough, and his movement