“Shall you be able to find it?” asked the minister.
“Yes,” answered Roger. “She has hidden it in the trunk of a tree about a mile distant, and she has marked the trees leading to the one where the child lies by an arrow cut in the bark; if it be still there I shall find it;” and he strode out of the house.
In less than an hour he came back, but his arms were empty.
“They have stolen it,” he said to Loïs, who met him. “She had made a bed of leaves for it, and I saw where it had been; but I also saw the track of a man’s foot round the tree, and the hands of a man had touched the child’s resting-place. It is gone.”
“What shall I say to her?” said Loïs, wringing her hands and weeping.
“You will not need to say anything,” answered the minister; “she is even now passing away. Come.”
They re-entered the room, and truly they knew that death was there before them. The veil was slowly being drawn across things earthly for the poor Indian woman; her eyes were already dim, her senses failing. The minister knelt down and prayed that the departing soul might awaken in another world to new knowledge and new light; and even as he prayed the answer came. A flash of light shot from Nadjii’s eyes, and a cry went up from her lips, “Jesus! Nenemoosha!” and she looked straight before her, as if she saw a vision; and so looking, the light died out of her face, and Nadjii slept.
CHAPTER XXI
AT THE HELM
After his repulse from Ticonderoga, General Abercromby made no marked effort to retrieve his position; his troops were disheartened, and fearing another attack by the French, he hastened to retire down Lake St. George, and to protect himself in an intrenched camp. In October, after the taking of Louisburg, General Amherst joined him; but it was then too late in the year to renew active service. Montcalm with his army withdrew for the winter to Montreal, and the English returned to Albany.
The English were, however, slowly gaining ground. Fort Duquesne, after immense labour and many hardships, was wrested by Brigadier-General Forbes from the French, and re-baptised, in honour of the great statesman, Pittsburg. Fort Frontenac was also captured, and this was more especially important as it gave the English a footing on Lake Ontario. And so the year 1758 came to a close, and the nations knew, both at home and abroad, that the great contest was likely to be fought out during the ensuing year; but whilst the land lay under its white covering of snow, with ice-bound rivers, there was peace, or rather a cessation of hostilities, and the leaders at home and abroad looked around to see who were the men most fitted to place at the helm.