said Jean. "Give us your word that you will come with
us quietly, making no resistance and no effort to escape." The
Englishman shut his lips doggedly.

"Then you must be bound," said Mich' with curt decision. "We've no
time to waste."

"Let _me_ bind you, Monsieur," said Barbe, taking his wrists gently and
putting them behind his back. "It is no dishonor to be captive to a
woman."

With a silk scarf from her waist, and a feminine cunning in knots, she
quickly tied his hands together so that he felt himself quite hopeless
of escape. Then, in a cold wrath, he was led forward; with no
constraint but Barbe's touch upon his arm. The ship, high on her
stocks, came into view. And he understood.

Seating himself upon a log, with his back against a tree, Mich' passed
a rope about his waist and made him fast to the trunk. There he sat
and chewed his indignation, while his captors went in haste about their
work. But presently he grew interested. He saw the blocks knocked out
from under the little ship's sides, so that she came down upon the
greased ways and slid smoothly into the flood. He saw her checked
gradually by a rope turned once around a tree trunk, so that she was
kept from running aground on the opposite side of the Basin. He saw a
small boat dragged down from the bushes to the edge of the tide, and
oars put into it. By this time he had revolved many aspects of the
case in his mind. Then came to him Barbe and Jean.

"Monsieur," said Jean, "I regret to have inconvenienced you in this
way. But you would without mercy have wrecked all my hopes. I have
put all my means into this little ship, built with my own hands. My
heart is set on removing from the land of Acadie, to live once more
under my own flag of France. But I do not wish to take you a prisoner
to Louisburg, or to put you to any further annoyance. To Mademoiselle
Dieudonne you showed yourself yesterday a most kind and courteous
gentleman. All Acadie knows you are brave. Give me your word that you
will in no way seek to stop or hinder our departure, and let me set you
free!"

"Give your parole, Monsieur!" begged Barbe, "or you will have to devote
yourself to entertaining me all the way to Louisburg."

The Englishman's face brightened.

"Almost you make me wish to go to Louisburg, Mademoiselle. With the
duty you apportion me I should be much happier, I assure you, than here
in Annapolis trying to govern your good fellow-countrymen. B