shman, but, instead, he greeted me with so much eagerness that I
saw that some of my news must have run before.

"What do you know?" I cried.

He looked at the crowd swarming outside the window. "That we are in a
hornets' nest," he said, with a wry smile. "But never mind that now. We
must talk rapidly. I have been waiting for you. I could not act till I
learned what you had done."

I bowed my regrets. "I was delayed. I saw the Englishman, and"----

He cut me short. "Never mind the Englishman," he cried, with a wave of
his impatient hand. "Tell me of the Ottawa camp. You have been there an
hour. I hear that you danced where they danced, and shared dog-meat and
jest alike. In faith, Montlivet, I have a good will to keep you here in
irons if I can do it in no gentler way. But what did Longuant say at the
council fire?"

I made sure that we were alone, and dropped into a chair. My muscles
were complaining, yet I knew that I had but begun my day's work. "It was
a long council," I said, "and all the old men were there. Longuant was
leader, but he was but one of many. The Ottawas are much stirred."

"About the prisoner?"

I shook my head. "The prisoner is the excuse,--the touchstone. The real
matter goes deep. You have not blinded these people. They know that
England and France are at war, but they know, too, that peace may be
declared any day. They know that the Baron has made an underground
treaty with the English and the Iroquois, and they realize that the
Iroquois may attack this place at any time with half the band of Hurons
at their back. They have no illusions as to what such an attack would
mean. They know that the French would make terms and be spared, but that
the Ottawas and the loyal Hurons would be butchered. They are
far-sighted."

Cadillac nodded heavily. "So they think that we would desert them, and
hand them over to the Iroquois? We must reassure them."

I rapped on the table. "We did desert them once," I reminded him. "They
know how we abandoned the refugee Hurons at Quebec, and they hold our
word lightly. It shames us to say this, but we must see matters as they
are. No, the Ottawas do not trust us, but they trust the English less.
It is a choice of evils. But they are shrewd enough to see that their
greatest peril lies in a truce between ourselves and the English. Then
they would indeed be between two stools. Now, they see that there are
two paths open."

Cadill