A hard master, you say? A wise one, say I, for the forces he fought in that desolate land were as adamant. Only the man dauntless as adamant could conquer. And you must remember, while the diamond and the charcoal are of the same family, 'tis the diamond has lustre, because it is hard. Faults, M. Radisson had, which were almost crimes; but look you who judge him—his faults were not the faults of nearly all other men, the faults which are a crime—the crime of being weak!
The first thing our eyes lighted on when the sun rose in flaming darts through the gray haze of dawn was a half-built fort on an island in mid-river. At the water side lay a queer-rigged brigantine, rocking to the swell of the tide. Here, then, was cause of that firing heard across the marsh on the lower river.
"'Tis the pirate ship we saw on the high sea," muttered Godefroy, rubbing his eyes.
"She flies no flag! She has no license to trade! She's a poacher! She will make a prize worth the taking," added M. Radisson sharply. Then, as if to justify that intent—"As we have no license, we must either take or be taken!"
The river mist gradually lifted, and there emerged from the fog a stockaded fort with two bastions facing the river and guns protruding from loopholes.
"Not so easy to take that fort," growled Godefroy, who was ever a hanger-back.
"All the better," retorted M. de Radisson. "Easy taking makes soft men! 'Twill test your mettle!"
"Test our mettle!" sulked the trader, a key higher in his obstinacy. "All very well to talk, sir, but how can we take a fort mounted with twenty cannon——"
"I'll tell you the how when it's done," interrupted M. de Radisson.
But Godefroy was one of those obstinates who would be silent only when stunned.