a very old Indian, who had been
abandoned by his tribe to die--for that, you must know, Monsieur, is one
of the pleasant customs of the wilderness.

"Greysolon and his men revived this savage in some fashion, and meantime
had much speech with him about this unknown land at whose edge we have
now arrived. The old savage said that he had been many moons north and
west of that place. He knew of the river called the Blue Earth, perhaps
the same of which Father Hennepin has told. And also of the Divine
River, far below and tributary to the Messasebe. He said that his father
was once of a war party who went far to the north against the Ojibways,
and that his people took from the Ojibways one of their prisoners, who
said that he came from some strange country far to the westward, where
there was a very wide plain, of no trees. Beyond that there were great
mountains, taller than any to be found in all this region hereabout.
Beyond these mountains the prisoner did not know what there might be,
but these mountains his people took to be the edge of the world, beyond
which could live only wicked spirits. This was what the prisoner of the
Ojibways said. He, too, was an old man.

"The captive of my brother Greysolon was an Outagamie, and he said that
the Outagamies burned this prisoner of the Ojibways, for they knew that
he was surely lying to them. Without doubt they did quite right to burn
him, for the notion of a great open country without trees or streams is,
of course, absurd to any one who knows America. And as for mountains,
all men know that the mountains lie to the east of us, not to the
westward."

"'Twould seem much hearsay," said Law, "this information which comes at
second, third and fourth hand."

"True," said Du Mesne, "but such is the source of the little we know of
the valley of the Messasebe, and that which lies beyond it. None the
less this idea offers interest."

"Yet you ask me if I would return."

"'Twas but for yourself, Monsieur. It is there, if I may humbly confess
to you, that it is my own ambition some day to arrive. Myself--this
West, as I said long ago to the gentlemen in London--appeals to me,
since it is indeed a land unoccupied, unowned, an empire which we may
have all for ourselves. What say you, Monsieur L'as?"

John Law straightened and stiffened as he stood. For an instant his eye
flashed with the zeal of youth and of adventure. It was but a transient
cloud which crossed his face, yet ther