hey cannot see us. But they are suspicious. They fear a trap."

"Shall we rush for the brushwood?"

"They would pick two of us off, and be gone like shadows through the
woods. No, we had best go on our way."

"But they will follow us."

"I hardly think that they will. We are four and they are only two, and
they know now that we are on our guard and that we can pick up a trail
as quickly as they can themselves. Get behind these trunks where they
cannot see us. So! Now stoop until you are past the belt of alder
bushes. We must push on fast now, for where there are two Iroquois
there are likely to be two hundred not very far off."

"Thank God that I did not bring Adele!" cried De Catinat.

"Yes, monsieur, it is well for a man to make a comrade of his wife, but
not on the borders of the Iroquois country, nor of any other Indian
country either."

"You do not take your own wife with you when you travel, then?" asked
the soldier.

"Yes, but I do not let her travel from village to village. She remains
in the wigwam."

"Then you leave her behind?"

"On the contrary, she is always there to welcome me. By Saint Anne, I
should be heavy-hearted if I came to any village between this and the
Bluffs of the Illinois, and did not find my wife waiting to greet me."

"Then she must travel before you."

Du Lhut laughed heartily, without, however, emitting a sound.

"A fresh village, a fresh wife," said he. "But I never have more than
one in each, for it is a shame for a Frenchman to set an evil example
when the good fathers are spending their lives so freely in preaching
virtue to them. Ah, here is the Ajidaumo Creek, where the Indians set
the sturgeon nets. It is still seven miles to Poitou."

"We shall be there before nightfall, then?"

"I think that we had best wait for nightfall before we make our way in.
Since the Iroquois scouts are out as far as this, it is likely that they
lie thick round Poitou, and we may find the last step the worst unless
we have a care, the more so if these two get in front of us to warn the
others." He paused a moment with slanting head and sidelong ear.
"By Saint Anne," he muttered, "we have not shaken them off. They are
still upon our trail!"

"You hear them?"

"Yes, they are no great way from us. They will find that they have
followed us once too often this time. Now, I will show you a little bit
of woodcraft which may be new to you. Slip off your moccasins,
monsieur.