"I will take charge of this ship," his voice thrilled along the deck. "Have no more of this foolery. Unloose the mate yonder and go to your places. By the help of God we will come safe to shore yet."
Very silently and in great awe the men unbound Black Michael, and in no long time the ship was as it had been. Robin and Tam Graham and I stood wondering at the break of the poop. Radisson turned to us with a courtly bow.
"Gentlemen, I thank you for your support. The crew is like to be short-handed ere we reach any port, and if need be I will call upon you for help," said he.
Robin stared, his mouth agape, and old Tam withdrew to tell the news in the cabins, whither we followed him presently. I looked about for Ruth, and found her giving some broth to my father and Alec. When this was done I took her out on deck willy-nilly, for she needed a breath of air and we cared little for the storm that still raged.
Since men were in the bows watching for ice ahead, we sat us down in the shelter of the cabin, and presently Radisson came thither and joined us.
"So now the mask is off," he said, speaking in French, and smiling. "I had not thought to tell my name, but it must needs out. We are in a bad strait, my friends."
"Why?" questioned Ruth. "And why not tell your name in the beginning? Surely you had no hard thoughts of us?"
Radisson looked sadly into her eyes, and smiled again. "My child, I have fled from England to die in mine own country. They would not let me go, they would not let me work for them nor serve them, and France has cast me out. Yet the English feared that I would serve France again, and so when I had provided for my wife and children I fled in secret to the coast and embarked in that little sloop wherein you found me.
"I had no hard thoughts, lass, but I am suspicious of all men. The wilderness is my only home, and it is to the wilderness that I go. If I come to the Colonies, or to New France, I shall be laid by the heels. They seem to fear that my very presence would work them ill." He lifted his face and looked to forget us as he gazed abroad into the storm. "Is there some curse upon me, Lord God, that men fear me so? Ah, to be once more on the open prairies where the air is free of plots, with red-skinned friends behind me and the unknown world ahead!"
Those words sank deeply into my mind, and there was to come a time when I would remember them again; but Ruth leaned forward and took his hand gently. A right strong hand it was, for all its age unwrinkled and firm as mine own.