prompt as well as intelligent. He did not wait for
explanations or allow surprise to delay him. With a bound he was beside
the girls, had grasped Idazoo, and looked to Adolay for further
instructions.

"Hold her till I tie up her hands," she said, drawing a stout line of
deerskin from a pocket in the breast of her dress.

With this she proceeded to bind her inquisitive friend's wrists.
Perceiving that she was to be made a captive, the girl opened her mouth
and began a shriek, which, had it been allowed full play, would no doubt
have reached her friends in the village, but Cheenbuk had observed the
intention, and before the first note had struggled into being, he
clapped his hand on her mouth and quenched it. Idazoo wore round her
neck a brightly coloured cotton kerchief, such as the fur-traders of
those days furnished for barter with the Indians. Cheenbuk quietly
plucked this off her neck and tied it firmly round her face and mouth so
as to effectually gag her. This done they fastened her to the stem of
the dead tree.

The whole operation was performed without unnecessary rudeness, and with
great celerity.

"Now, Idazoo," said Adolay, when they had finished, "you have done me
great injury this night. I am sorry to treat you in this way, but I
cannot help it. You _would_ come with me, you know. If I could trust
you even now, I would take the cloth off your mouth, but I dare not, you
might yell, and everybody knows you were never good at keeping your
promises. But it does not matter much. The handkerchief is not too
tight to prevent the air getting up your nose--and it will give your
tongue a rest, which it needs. Besides, the night is not cold, and as
our braves pass here every morning when starting off to hunt, you will
soon be set free."

The Eskimo showed all his brilliant teeth from ear to ear while this
little speech was being made. Then he accompanied Adolay through the
bush until they reached the shores of a small lake, beside which a
birch-bark canoe was lying, partly in the water. At an earlier part of
that evening the girl had placed the canoe there, and put into it
weapons and provisions suitable for a considerable voyage.

"You have got this ready for me?" said Cheenbuk.

"Yes. You saved my mother's life once, and I will save yours," replied
the girl, pointing to the bow of the canoe as if ordering him to embark.

"Are you going with me?" asked the youth, with a look of hopeful
surpri