Then we breakfasted
on meal and jerked meat and were ready to start.

But the rest of the men were not yet astir, and the woman's house was
silent. I walked to it and stood irresolute. I disliked to wake her.
Yet I could not leave her without some message. But while I pondered I
heard her step behind me. She came up from the water, and she looked
all vigor and morning gladness.

"Why the canoe so early?" she called. "Do we have fish for breakfast?"

I took her hand. "Come with me to the water." I led her to the canoe
and pointed out the bales of supplies. "You see we are ready for work.
We shall be back in a few days."

She dropped my hand. "Then why did you build that house?"

"Why not, madame?"

"But you say that we are to go this morning."

"I must go, madame."

"And you intend to leave me here?"

"Why, yes, madame."

"But you said 'we.'"

I looked some amazement. "I take Labarthe with me. I leave three men
with you on guard. There is nothing to fear."

And then she threw back her head. "I do not think that I am afraid,"
she said more quietly. "But--I was not prepared for this. It had not
occurred to me that you would go away."

I stopped a moment. "I do not go for pleasure. Indeed, I cannot
imagine a fairer spot in which to linger and forget the world. But did
you think that I would sit in idleness, madame?"

She looked down. "I do not know that I thought at all about it. It
has gone on like a play, a dream. Perhaps I thought it would continue.
Your plan is to travel from tribe to tribe, and come back here at
intervals?"

"That is my plan. I shall buy furs and cache them here. I shall try
not to be away more than a week at a time. I regret that I surprised
you. I did not think but that you understood."

She stood biting her lips and smiling to herself in half-satiric,
half-whimsical fashion. "It says little for my intelligence that I was
unprepared. You are a man, not a courtier. I should have known that
you would not waste an hour. I wish that I might go with you."

"Madame, I wish it, too."

She looked up more briskly. "But that would be impossible. Have you
instructions for me, monsieur?"

"Madame, if you are afraid, come with me."

"I am not afraid if you say that it is safe, monsieur."

"Thank you, madame. I think that it is entirely safe. Pierre is a
good deal of a fool and more of a knave, but in some few respects there
is no one like him; he is a