"It is not safe down here," he said, in Cree, "for the scouts. A runner from the Stonies saw you both, and Little Poplar with you, this morning, and swiftly carried the news. It is likely that le grand chef knows of it before this. Little Poplar, who is now disguised as a medicine man, is yonder in the valley, and he charged me to come and warn the two scouts, his friends, to follow out the instructions that he gave them without any delay. He has got some tidings, too, about Stephens, le capitaine. Not good tidings, I think; a brave saw several of le chef's men steal after him down the Valley of the Snakes."
A short cry escaped from Annette's lips, and the blood shrunk chilled to her heart.
"Are there any tidings of a capture?"
"No; perhaps le capitaine escaped. Upon clear ground the white men's horses could easily outdistance the braves, who, it is said, were not mounted."
Unsatisfactory as this intelligence was, it left room to hope. But the beauty of the silvery lake, with its fringe of berried bushes; the scolding of the kingfisher as he gadded from one riven tree to another; the goblin laughter [Footnote: I borrow this most expressive phrase from my friend, Prof. Roberts, as vividly descriptive of the cry of the loon. John Burroughs applies the epithet "whinny," which is good; but it misses the sense of supernatural terror with which, to me, the cry of this bird in the moonlight is always associated.] of the stately loon, as he held his way across the wide stretch of shining, richly tinted water, might all as well have never been; for Annette saw them not. Julie was busy trying to cheer her.
"Be not down at heart, sweet my mistress. These territories are now invested by numerous soldiers from the East, and tidings of this capture, if such there has been, would speedily reach them. Throw away your care, and rest to-night. With the sun we shall rise to-morrow, ourselves restored, our horses fresh, and ascertain the facts. Inspector Dicken will know; and him we can reach in a two hours' ride."
"Sweet girl, in the hour of pain you always can give me consolation. Indians have also skulked after us; and it may be that the braves were only watching whither Captain Stephens went."
"My view precisely, mademoiselle; but we shall talk no more about it now. Sit beside me here upon the bank, and look at the peace and the beauty of all this scene." Under the shadow of the bank, with its matted growth of trees, the water was a pure myrtle green; midway in the expanse it was purple, and beyond, in the last faint light of the sun, it was an exquisite violet. The sand at their feet alternated in veins of umber brown, and ashes of roses; while the vermillion of the rowan berries made a vivid and gorgeous contrast to the glaucous green of the leafage.
Little ripples came upon the bright, pink sand that fringed the unvarying tide-mark.
"What causes the ripple now, Julie, when no breath of wind is in the heavens, and neither oar nor paddle is on the lake?"