"The English desire to take the country that they may make it their home and abide here for ever," answered Roussilac. "The French are here to protect the Algonquins, and when danger is over they shall return to their wives and families in the homeland."
"The chief also desires to know what is the cause of the king's friendliness to a people whom he has never seen," continued the interpreter.
"King Louis has forbidden the English to enter this country, and when they disobey he sends ships and men against them. It is his will that the Algonquins shall possess this land in peace."
"Um," said Oskelano profoundly, when these fictions had been expounded.
"What says the wooden-faced fool?" asked Roussilac.
"The doctors of his tribe tell him that all white men are liars," replied the dwarf. "But the English are greater liars than the French."
"Would that I might collect all the savages in this country upon yonder island in mid-stream, and there exterminate them root and branch," the governor muttered.
"Import a shipload of bad brandy, commandant," suggested the interpreter, with an evil grin. "That would spread a disease which might carry them off in a few generations."
"What say you?" exclaimed Roussilac. "Away, hunchbacked devil!"
But when Oskelano had gone to the quarters which had been prepared for him, and Gaudriole had followed with a grating laugh, Roussilac remained to pace the cliff and consider the evil thought. "'Tis a vile plan," he muttered. "Yet beasts are poisoned when they overrun the land. By St. Louis, it is a plan which might work."