camps,--all were as usual. They were peaceful, untouched. I
swallowed, for my throat and tongue were dry.

CHAPTER XXIV

I MEET VARIOUS WELCOMES

It was Father Carheil who first sighted us. He sounded the cry of our
arrival, and came skurrying like a sandpiper, his scant gown tripping
him, his cap askew.

I leaped from the canoe and hurried to him. The man must hate me, but
he could not refuse me news. I stretched out my hand.

"Is all well here, father? Is all well?"

He disdained my hand, and held his arms wide. "All is well with us.
But you---- We feared the Iroquois wolf had devoured you."

And I had thought the man capable of petty spite. I dropped on my
knees to him. "Father Carheil, I grieve for what I did, yet I could
not have done otherwise."

He drew back a little and rumpled his thin hair with a bloodless hand.
His face was frowning, but his restless, brilliant eyes were full of
amusement.

"So your conscience is not at ease? My son, you are as strong as a
Flemish work horse. I limped to mass for the next fortnight, and my
gown was in fiddle-strings,--you may send me another. As for the rest,
we need new altar hangings. Now, come, come, come. Tell us what has
happened."

And there it ended. One makes enemies in strange ways in this world
and friends in stranger. I should not have said that the way to win a
man's heart was to bind him like a Christmas fowl and then leave him
with his back on the sand.

The priest's cry had waked the garrison, and the officers came running.
Cadillac, stout as he was, was in the lead. I knew, from the press of
his arms about me, that he had thought me dead.

"Is Madame de Montlivet safe? Are the Senecas here?" I clamored at him.

A babel of affirmatives arose. Yes, madame was there. The Senecas
were there. So the English prisoner had proved to be a woman. Had I
known it at the time? I was a sly dog. All tongues talked at once,
while I fought for a hearing. We turned toward the commandant's. The
door of the nearest cabin opened and Starling came out. He did not
look toward us, and he walked the other way. The woman walked beside
him.

A hush clapped down on us as if our very breathing were strangled. A
lane opened in front of me. I took one step in it, then stopped.
There was the woman. I had followed her through wounds and hardship.
Through the long nights I had watched the stars and planned for our
meeting. But when I wo