The change in his fortunes was so sudden, and so amazing,—passing at one bound from the grave's edge back to freedom and love, that he was for some seconds unable to realize it, and his eyes and brain swam with a sense of happiness that reached delirium. But gradually it all began to grow clear: the scurrying figures of his captors and jailers; the shouting of mounted soldiers; the wistful eyes of his beloved looking at him.
"Ah, Annette; you again; my guardian angel!"
It took but a few minutes to restore order. It was ascertained that Riel and Jean had made their escape while Browninge's horse was yet half a mile away from the post; but they made their exit in secrecy.
"If we give the alarm," Kiel muttered, as he prepared to get into the saddle, "there will be an instant stampede, and the execution will be stayed."
"I agree with the decision of mon chef. Let Luc remain; he has courage enough to have the thing done with the soldiers at the very stockades." And the two rode away helter-skelter, till a dozen miles lay between them and their treason nest.
"The rebel chief is gone; he skurried away half an hour ago," was the tidings that one of the men brought to Browninge. That officer was not surprised; and ordered that the prisoners, which numbered about a dozen in all, be put in carts, and escorted by a guard of cavalry back to Camp Denison.
They were all tired, and it was resolved that the horses be permitted to rest for a couple of hours before returning.
"I can find the way back to your colonel's camp, monsieur Browninge, as easily by night as in the daylight." Riel and his greasy followers lived like so many swine in a sty; but several brace of quail and chicken, and quarters of elk were found, which the two Cree boys at once began to prepare. A few loaves of bread were found, and a tolerable side of bacon, from all of which, with the pure, cold water that gurgled out of the side of a nigh ridge, a sumptuous meal was promised.
Stephens objected to the Cree boys doing the drudgery, but Annette besought ham so sweetly with her eyes to let "the little scouts" do it, that he desisted. His glance, as he followed every movement of the maiden, had as much of mute adoration, reverent and tender, as ever has been seen in the eyes of a man. How little he had known the worth of this girl, when he toyed with her hair and put a straw into her dimples at her father's house! I suppose he regarded her as thoughtful men regard most girls before they become enslaved either to their fascination or their gifts. I do not care to write an ungallant speech, but I do say that I have so far in life looked upon men much as I do upon women; and I assume every man to be a fool till he has proven himself otherwise to me.
The sun was setting when the order to saddle was given; and with the two scouts leading, the party set out along nearly the same route by which they had come in the morning. A darkness that, without a flight of imagination, might be called "dense," pressed upon the prairie, and only a few small and feeble points of star-light were to be seen. But on a sudden a mellow, green-tinted light burst out of the northern sky with a brightness that showed the startled expression upon every face. The horses pricked up their ears, and looked for a moment at the radiant, quivering, northern sky.