some day and turn upon me and strike and give
me more throw."

"All right, comrade, treasure your wrath! Only I thought two men, who
had saved each other's lives, might be friends and bury old quarrels."

"You not know," he blurted out in a broken voice.

"Not know what?" I asked impatiently. "I tell you I forgive all and I
had thought you might do as much----"

"Do as much!" he interrupted fiercely. "_O mon Dieu!_" he cried, with a
sob that shook his frame. "Take me away! Take me away!" he begged the
man on whose arm he was leaning; and with those enigmatical words he
passed to the nearest boat.

While I was yet gazing in mute amazement after Louis Laplante, wondering
whether his strange emotion were revenge, or remorse, the women and
children marched forth with the men protecting each side. The empty
threats of half-breeds to butcher every settler in Red River had
evidently reached the ears of the women. Some trembled so they could
scarcely walk and others stared at us with the reproach of murder in
their eyes, gazing in horror at our guilty hands. At last I caught sight
of Frances Sutherland. She was well to the rear of the sad procession,
leaning on the arm of a tall, sturdy, erect man whom I recognized as her
father. I would have forced my way to her side at once, but a swift
glance forbade me. A gleam of love flashed to the gray eyes for an
instant, then father and daughter had passed.

"Little did I think," the harsh, rasping voice of the father was saying,
"that daughter of mine would give her heart to a murderer. Which of
these cut-throats may I claim for a son?"

"Hush, father," she whispered. "Remember he warned us to the fort and
took me to Pembina." She was as pale as death.

"Aye! Aye! We're under obligations to strange benefactors when times go
awry!" he returned bitterly.

"O father! Don't! You'll think differently when you know----" but a
hulking lout stumbled between us, and I missed the rest.

They were at the boats and an old Highlander was causing a blockade by
his inability to lift a great bale into the barge.

"Let me give you a lift," said I, stepping forward and taking hold of
the thing.

"Friend, or foe?" asked the Scot, before he would accept my aid.

"Friend, of course," and I braced myself to give the package a hoist.

"Hudson's Bay, or Nor'-Wester?" pursued the settler, determined to take
no help from the hated enemy.

"Nor'-Wester, but what does that matter? A friend all