marked progress. He will
make a second visit, and he has sworn that triumph alone
will satisfy him then. If things fall not out in this
wise, I am promised his vengeance. He declares that our
intimacy with young Scott, and the visit paid us by the
homme mauvais Mair, who is an unscrupulous agent of the
Canadian Government, would justify extreme measures
against us; and if I mistake not the man, his intention
is to arm hundreds of our people, proclaim a martial law,
and establish himself as head and judge. I am certain
that he would not hesitate to take the most lawless steps.
Indeed, I should not regard as safe either my own life
or your honour. Such then being the facts, what are we
to do?"

"God is good; let us first of all put our trust in Him.
Then let us examine the means which He has given us to
meet the evil. Now, my plan is that I shall in the first
instance affect to yield with grief to such proposals as
you at first make to me. Let there be a surrender of
Monsieur Scott--" Here she blushed so deeply that all
her sweet-rounded cheek, and her neck, and her delicious
little shell-like ears, became a crimson, deep as her
bodice--"and a consent to entertain as favourably as I
can the suit of M. Riel. Meanwhile we can see what is
the next best step. I do not think that we have much to
dread by leaving Red River. We can go to your brother
who lives across the border, and I am certain that he
will be delighted to harbour us till the tempest blows
over. I believe that this rising will rage for a brief
season only, when it must yield to the arm of the Canadian
authorities. M. Riel is a fanatic, and counts not the
perilousness of his undertaking. He will succeed at the
first, I doubt not. You will hear of slaughtered whites,
and others who have incurred his private vengeance. He
will lord it over all like a tyrant, till he sees the
bayonets from Canada, when he will take good care to get
out of the way." Her father saw that her views were sound,
and consented to take her advice; but who was to acquaint
his brother with their needs, and to learn if he could
afford a harbourage?

"Paul can go. He can take the pony and ride the distance
in twelve hours." So it was agreed, and Marie busied
herself with the linen of her brother, and sewed missing
buttons upon his clothes. In the evening, when all were
seated at supper, a young half-breed who had long been
an intimate friend at the house of Marie's father, and
who c