other to push the
investigation further, or to cherish feelings of ill-will. He therefore
went up to the Indian, and, with a smile of candour on his face, held
out his hand, which the latter grasped and shook, exclaiming "Wat-chee!"
under the belief that these words formed an essential part of every
white man's salutation.

This matter had barely been settled when a man came out of the woods and
approached them. He was one of the Red River settlers, but personally
unknown to any of them. From him they heard of the condition of the
settlement. Of course they asked many eager questions about their own
kindred after he had mentioned the chief points of the disastrous flood.

"And what of my father, Samuel Ravenshaw?" asked Victor anxiously.

"What! the old man at Willow Creek, whose daughter is married to
Lambert?"

"Married to Lambert!" exclaimed Ian, turning deadly pale.

"Ay, or engaged to be, I'm not sure which," replied the man. "Oh, he's
all right. The Willow Creek house stands too high to be washed away.
The family still lives in it--in the upper rooms."

"And Angus Macdonald, what of him?" asked Ian.

"An' ma mere--my moder, ole Liz Rollin, an' ole Daddy, has you hear of
dem?" demanded Rollin.

At the mention of old Liz the man's face became grave.

"Angus Macdonald and his sister," he said, "are well, and with the
Ravenshaws, I believe, or at the Little Mountain, their house being
considered in danger; but old Liz Rollin," he added, turning to the
anxious half-breed, "has been carried away with her hut, nobody knows
where. They say that her old father and the mother of Winklemann have
gone along with her."

Words cannot describe the state of mind into which this information
threw poor Michel Rollin. He insisted on seizing one of the canoes and
setting off at once. As his companions were equally anxious to reach
their flooded homes an arrangement was soon come to. Petawanaquat put
Tony into the middle of his canoe with Victor, while Ian took the bow
paddle. Michel took the steering paddle of the other canoe, and Meekeye
seated herself in the bow.

Thus they launched out upon the waters of the flood, and, bidding adieu
to the settler who had given them such startling information, were soon
paddling might and main in the direction of the settlement.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

RETURN OF THE LOST ONE.

It chanced that, on the morning of the arrival of Victor and his
comrades at the margin of