s as if the sentence
of my own life had been pronounced; and my whole being rose up to salute
destiny. I take it, there is in every one some secret and cherished
desire for a chosen vocation to which each looks forward with hope up to
the meridian of life, and to which many look back with regret after the
meridian. Of prophetic instincts and intuitions and impressions and
feelings and much more of the same kind going under a different name, I
say nothing, I only set down as a fact, to be explained how it may,
that all the way out to the gorge, with Paul, The Mute leading for a
third time, I could have sworn there would be no corpse in that
snow-covered grave. For was it not written in my inner consciousness
that destiny had appointed me to the wild, free life of the north? So I
was not surprised when Paul Larocque's spade struck sharply on a box.
Indians sleep their last sleep in the skins of the chase. Nor was I in
the least amazed when that same spade pried up the lid of cached
provisions instead of a coffin. Then I had ocular proof of what I knew
before, that Louis in word and conduct--but chiefly in conduct, which is
the way of the expert had--lied outrageously to me.

When the ice broke up at the end of April, hunters were off for their
summer retreats and _voyageurs_ set out on the annual trip to the _Pays
d'En Haut_. This year the Hudson's Bay Company had organized a strong
fleet of canoemen under Mr. Colin Robertson, a former Nor'-Wester, to
proceed to Red River settlement by way of the Ottawa and the Sault
instead of entering the fur preserve by the usual route of Hudson Bay
and York Factory. From Le Grand Diable's former association with the
North-West Company it was probable he would be in Robertson's brigade.
Among the _voyageurs_ of both companies there was not a more expert
canoeman than this treacherous, thievish Iroquois. As steersman, he
could take a crew safely through knife-edge rocks with the swift
certainty of arrow flight. In spite of a reputation for embodying the
vices of white man and red--which gave him his unsavory title--it seemed
unlikely that the Hudson's Bay Company, now in the thick of an
aggressive campaign against its great rival, and about to despatch an
important flotilla from Montreal to Athabasca by way of the
Nor'-Westers' route, would dispense with the services of this dexterous
_voyageur_. On the other hand, the Nor'-Westers might bribe the Iroquois
to stay with them.

Acting o