"Two hundred livres," he said instantly.
"Very well. It shall be paid. You will be detained here for a time, and I will purchase for you a sufficient number of beaver-pelts to defray that sum. Is that satisfactory?"
"Why should I have to wait?" he parried. "Peste, Winter draws on fast, and I——"
"You will wait," I cut him off. "And you will be paid."
And, turning to Ta-wan-ne-ars, I asked him to give the necessary instructions to the Onondagas. The messenger, a look of sour satisfaction on his cunning face, was marched off to undergo the restraint of an unwelcome visitor.
"Well?" I said to Ta-wan-ne-ars.
The Seneca returned me the letter.
"See," he said, pointing to the wild geese flying in pairs to the south, "the cold weather is coming. For the last week the northern sky has been hard and clear. There has been snow beyond the Lakes."
"What does that mean!" I demanded.
"That Black Robe will be delayed in returning from his visit to the Dionondadies. And that is a very good thing for us, brother. But for that I think we would be too late."