y all he had done, he shook his head
and gave it as his opinion that he had not gone the right way to work at
all, and that, according to the lie of the land and the height of the
flood, it was certain the hut must have been carried far below that part
of the settlement in the direction of the lower fort.

Poor Winklemann was so worn out with unsuccessful searching that he was
only too glad to follow wherever Michel Rollin chose to lead. Hence it
came to pass that in the afternoon of the same day the searchers came in
view of the tall tree where old Liz had hoisted her flag of distress.

"Voila!" exclaimed Michel, on first catching sight of the ensign.

"Vat is dat?" said his companion, paddling closer alongside of his
friend, and speaking in a hoarse whisper.

"It look like a flag," said Rollin, pushing on with increased vigour.
"There's something like one crow below it," he added, after a short
time.

"It have stranch voice for von crow," said the German.

He was right. The yell of triumphant joy uttered by old Liz when she
saw that her signal had been observed was beyond the imitative powers of
any crow. As the poor creature waved her free arm, and continued to
shout, while her loose hair tossed wildly round her sooty face, she
presented a spectacle that might well have caused alarm not unmixed with
awe even in a manly breast; but there was a certain tone in the shouts
which sent a sudden thrill to the heart of Rollin, causing him, strange
to say, to think of lullabies and infant days! With eyeballs fixed on
the tree-top, open-mouthed and breathing quick, he paddled swiftly on.

"Michel," said Winklemann, in a whisper, even hoarser than before, "your
moder!"

Rollin replied not, but gave a stentorian roar, that rolled grandly over
the water.

Why was it that old Liz suddenly ceased her gesticulations, lifted her
black brows in unutterable surprise, opened her mouth, and became a
listening statue? Did she too recognise tones which recalled other
days--and the puling cries of infancy? It might have been so. Certain
it is that when the shout was repeated she broke down in an effort to
reply, and burst into mingled laughter and tears, at the same time
waving her free arm more violently than ever.

This was too much for the branch on which she had been performing. It
gave way, and old Liz suddenly came down, as sailors have it, "by the
run." She crashed through the smaller branches of the tree-top, whi