lent, and timid.

"Why have you not gone before the gates are shut, Catharine?"

She hesitated.

"I did not wish to take away the skin that is yours."

"But you did take it away, as far as the gate."

She hesitated more.

"Yes, that is so. But if I take it outside I can never return it."

"Why not?"

"I cannot tell. I am afraid."

"You can talk freely. Nothing that you say shall go to other ears. If
you bring me news of value you will be well rewarded, and no one shall
know."

Catharine loved the major. Presently she told him of the mind of
Pontiac, and the deed planned for tomorrow morning.

A cold fear clutched the heart of Major Gladwyn. He recalled the
shortened guns, he recalled the Bloody Belt, he recalled the date made
with him for a big council on the morrow. At last he rather believed.

So he sent away the trembling Catharine, that she might go to her
village. He held a council with his officers.

Here they were, with only one hundred and twenty soldiers, and less
than three weeks' provisions, cut off by one thousand, two thousand,
three thousand merciless Indian warriors, and by the French settlers
and traders who probably would be glad to have the English killed.

"The English are to be struck down, but no Frenchman is to be harmed,"
had said Catharine.

That looked bad indeed.

This night guards were doubled along the parapets, and in the
block-houses. The major himself walked guard most of the night. From
the distant villages of the Ottawas, the Wyandots, and the Potawatomis
drifted the clamor of dances--an ugly sound, full of meaning, now.

Precisely at ten o'clock in the morning a host of bark canoes from the
Ottawa side of the Detroit River slanted across the current, and made
landing. Pontiac approached at the head of a long file of thirty
chiefs and as many warriors. They walked with measured, stately tread.
Every man was closely wrapped in a gay blanket.

They were admitted through the gate of the fort, but it was closed
against the mass of warriors, women and children who pressed after.

As Pontiac, with his escort, stalked for the council room, his quick
glances saw that the soldiers were formed, under arms, and moving from
spot to spot, and that a double rank had been stationed around the
headquarters.

In the council chamber he noted, too, that each officer wore his sword,
and two pistols!

"Why," asked Pontiac, of Major Gladwyn, "do I see so many of my
fath