German, besides being
stupefied, had grasped his canoe with tremendous power, and could not be
detached. To get an active and living man out of the water into a birch
canoe is no easy matter; to embark a half-dead one is almost impossible;
nevertheless Lambert and his red-skinned comrade managed to do it
between them. Raising his unconscious friend as far out of the water as
possible, Louis caught one of his hands and wrenched it from its hold.
Meanwhile the Indian leaned out of the opposite side of the canoe so as
to balance it. Another violent wrench freed the other hand. It also
freed Winklemann's spirit to some extent, and called it back to life,
for he exclaimed, "Vat is dat?" in a tone of faint but decided surprise.

"Here, lay hold of my neck," said Lambert, in a peremptory voice.

Winklemann obeyed. Lambert exerted all his strength and heaved. The
Indian did not dare to lend a hand, as that would have upset the canoe,
but he leaned still farther over its other side as a counterpoise. At
last Lambert got his friend on the edge, and tumbled him inboard. At
the same moment the Indian adroitly resumed his position, and Winklemann
was saved!

"You'll soon be all right," said Lambert, resuming his paddle. "Haven't
swallowed much water, I hope?"

"No, no," said Winklemann faintly; "mine lunks, I do tink, are free of
vatter, but mine lecks are stranchly qveer. I hav no lecks at all!
'Pears as if I vas stop short at zee vaist!"

Herr Winklemann said no more, but was swiftly borne, in a state of
semi-consciousness, to his friends on the Little Mountain.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twenty-six years later, in 1852, Red River Settlement was visited by a
flood very similar in its main features to that of 1826, above
described; and it is a curious coincidence that only one man lost his
life during the latter flood; also, that the waters of the floods of
both years began to subside on exactly the same date.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

THE RED MAN RECEIVES A VISITOR, COGITATES DEEPLY, AND ACTS WITH
DECISION.

We return now, to the red man, who, with his captive, spent the greater
part of that winter on the slopes of the Rocky mountains, in a valley
between two spurs of the range which merged gradually into the prairie.

In this sequestered spot Petawanaquat could, by turning to the right
hand, seek the rugged haunts of the grizzly near and the Rocky Mountain
goat;