an he vaunts himself. He is tied
by hate;" and pushing out his lip till his huge nose pendant stood at a
right angle, he went on his way to be my willing, but entirely
unhoodwinked agent.

I went to my canoes, stumbling a little, for I was tired. It was dark
now, and the fires glowed brazenly, so that the Indians showed like
dancing silhouettes. The sky was cloudless, and to the east lay a band
of uncertain light that meant the rising moon. This was the time that
I had planned to use in action, and the knowledge that I was powerless
to accomplish anything myself made me so irritable that I could not
bear to speak even to Pierre and the men. I sent them to a distance,
and sat down on the sand so torn and frayed by anxiety that I was like
a sick man.

And here, after long minutes, Singing Arrow found me. She came running
down the beach, slipping on the rolling pebbles, and careless either of
her grace, or of the noise she made.

"And you sit here doing nothing!" she cried, quite as a white girl
might have done.

I pushed her down on the sand. "Stop!" I said. "I knew you would seek
me here. Now answer briefly. Pemaou and his men would not let you get
near the window?"

"No."

"They had seen you with me," I explained. "I feared it. Did Longuant
and his men come?"

"Like bees," she answered, with a fling of her arms. "They are
everywhere. We can do nothing;" and she dropped her head in her arms
and cried.

Now what indeed could be her motive? "Never mind, Singing Arrow," I
said experimentally. "What is it to you, after all?"

She wriggled her head to throw me a wrathful look. "I always win at a
game," she mumbled.

She was as hard to read as a purring cat, but that did not matter.
"We've not lost yet," I said, as slowly and coolly as if I did not see
the disk of the moon looking at me. "I sent Longuant there. I was
sure that Pemaou would keep you away, and I am playing for time. So
long as the Ottawas and Hurons are squabbling with one another,
Cadillac will not deliver the prisoner. But we must get them farther
away. Singing Arrow, I have brandy in my cargo. I have drawn off two
large flasks. Could you carry them to the other end of the camp, and
send word among the braves?"

Now this was a contemptible thing to suggest; but any one who stoops,
as I was letting myself do, to use a cat's-paw to work out his ends
will surely soil his fingers. The sword is the clean weapon. I felt
tha