oice beside her. "Let the child alone! And answer
to me. What business had you with this canoe? Child, where are your
friends?"

"My business with it was that I hired and paid for it," cried Marsac,
angrily, and the next instant he felt for his knife.

"Paid for it?" repeated the other. "Then come and convict a man of
falsehood. Put up your knife. Let us have fair play. I had hired the
canoe in the morning and went up the river, and was to have it this
afternoon, and he declared you took it without leave or license."

"That is a lie!" declared Marsac, passionately.

"Jeanne! Jeanne!" cried Pani in distress.

The stranger lifted her out. Jeanne looked back at Marsac, and then at
the young man.

"You will not fight him?" she said to the stranger. Fights and brawls
were no uncommon events.

"We shall have nothing to fight about if the man has lied to us both.
But I wouldn't care to be in _his_ skin. Come along, my man."

"I am not your man," said Marsac, furiously angry.

"Well--stranger, then. One can hardly say friend," in a dignified
fashion that checked Marsac.

Pani caught the child. Pierre was on the other side of her. "What was
it?" he asked. How good his stolid, rugged face looked!

"A quarrel about the boat. Run and see how they settle it, Pierre."

"But you and Marie--and it is getting dark."

"Run, run! We are not afraid." She stamped her foot and Pierre obeyed.

Marie clung to her. People jostled them, but they made their way through
the narrow, crowded street. The bells were ringing, more from long habit
now. Soldiers in uniform were everywhere, some as guards, caring for the
noisier ones. Madame De Ber was leaning over her half door, and gave a
cry of joy.

"Where hast thou been all day, and where is Pierre, my son?" she
demanded.

The three tried to explain at once. They had had a lovely day, and
Madame Ganeau, with her daughter and promised son-in-law, were along in
the sail down the river. And Pierre had gone to see the result of a
dispute--

"I sent him," cried Jeanne, frankly. "Oh, here he comes," as Pierre ran
up breathless.

"O my son, thou art safe--"

"It was no quarrel of mine," said Pierre, "and if it had been I have two
good fists and a foot that can kick. It was that Jogue who hired his
boat twice over and pretended to forget. But he gave back the money. He
had told a lie, however, for he said Marsac took the canoe without his
knowledge, and then he declared he had been s