time with
him, and gradually I came to know somewhat of his queer, disordered
soul. He could not bring himself to face defeat in the eyes of men, or
to see the knowledge of it in their bearing; therefore, he fled. He
told me that he would be a hunted animal all his life; that the news of
his whipping would travel ahead of him; and that his enemies would
search him out to take advantage of him. This I could not grasp, but it
seemed a big thing in his eyes--so big that he wept. He said the only
decent thing he could or would do was to leave the daughter he had
never known to that happiness he had never experienced, and wished me
to tell her that she was very much like her mother, who was the best
woman in the world."

CHAPTER XIX

THE CALL OF THE OREADS

There was mingled rejoicing and lamentation in the household of John
Gale this afternoon. Molly and Johnny were in the throes of an
overwhelming sorrow, the noise of which might be heard from the
barracks to the Indian village. They were sparing of tears as a rule,
but when they did give way to woe they published it abroad, yelling
with utter abandon, their black eyes puckered up, their mouths
distended into squares, from which came such a measure of sound as to
rack the ears and burden the air heavily with sadness. Poleon was going
away! Their own particular Poleon! Something was badly askew in the
general scheme of affairs to permit of such a thing, and they
manifested their grief so loudly that Burrell, who knew nothing of
Doret's intention, sought them out and tried to ascertain the cause of
it. They had found the French-Canadian at the river with their father,
loading his canoe, and they had asked him whither he fared. When the
meaning of his words struck home they looked at each other in dismay,
then, bred as they were to mask emotion, they joined hands and trudged
silently back up the bank with filling eyes and chins a-quiver until
they gained the rear of the house. Here they sat down all forlorn, and
began to weep bitterly and in an ascending crescendo.

"What's the matter with you tikes, anyhow?" inquired the Lieutenant. He
had always filled them with a speechless awe, and at his unexpected
appearance they began the slow and painful process of swallowing their
grief. He was a nice man, they had both agreed long ago, and very
splendid to the eye, but he was nothing like Poleon, who was one of
them, only somewhat bigger.

"Come, now! Tell me all abou