ed; but you know that the Indians are not
safe just now, and some of them, I fear, bear me a grudge, for they're a
revengeful set."

"That's true, father, but supposin' that all goes well with you, will ye
come an' live with Marie and me?"

"We shall see, lad; we shall see," replied Laroche, with a pleased
smile; for the old guide evidently enjoyed the prospect of spending the
evening of life in the land of his fathers, and under the roof-tree of
his son and daughter.

At that moment the report of a gun was heard outside the house. One of
the window-panes was smashed and at the same instant Laroche fell
heavily forward on the floor.

Jasper sprang up and endeavoured to raise him, but found that he was
insensible. He laid him carefully on his back, and hastily opened the
breast of his coat. A few drops of blood showed where he had been
wounded. Meanwhile several of the men who had been attracted by the
gunshot so close to the house burst into the room.

"Stand back, stand back, give him air," cried Jasper; "stay, O God help
us! the old man is shot clean through the heart!"

For one moment Jasper looked up with a bewildered glance in the faces of
the men, then, uttering a wild cry of mingled rage and agony, he sprang
up, dashed them aside, and catching up his gun and snow-shoes rushed out
of the house.

He soon found a fresh track in the snow, and the length of the stride,
coupled with the manner in which the snow was cast aside, and the
smaller bushes were broken and trodden down, told him that the fugitive
had made it. In a moment, he was following the track, with the utmost
speed, of which he was capable. He never once halted, or faltered, or
turned aside, all that day. His iron frame seemed to be incapable of
fatigue. He went with his body bent forward, his brows lowering, and
his lips firmly compressed; but he was not successful. The murderer had
got a sufficiently long start of him to render what sailors call a stern
chase a long one. Still Jasper never thought of giving up the pursuit,
until he came suddenly on an open space, where the snow had been
recently trodden down by a herd of buffaloes, and by a band of Indians
who were in chase of them.

Here he lost the track, and although he searched long and carefully he
could not find it. Late that night the baffled hunter returned to the
fort.

"You have failed--I see by your look," said Mr Pemberton, as Jasper
entered.

"Ay, I have failed," r