For once the young Indian was at a loss to know what to say. He shook his head and walked on beside them.
“I’m tired of it all,” said Dick. “Our luck has deserted us. There used to be a time, Sandy, when we could stumble through difficulties blindly. But I’m afraid that that time has passed. We’re up against a solid rock wall. We can’t scale it. It’s too high for our puny strength. We’re helpless.”
“And yet,” said Sandy, almost reverently, “Corporal Rand came up here single-handed to accomplish what we have failed to do with forty men. Have you stopped to think about that?”
“Yes, but Corporal Rand is licked too.”
“The trail did that. I’m willing to bet that if Corporal Rand were here now, he’d dare to go back to that Indian village alone, and would probably be successful too.”
“I realize that. But how do they do it? It’s a thing I’ve often wondered at.”
“I can’t explain it myself,” said Sandy, “unless it is the awe in which they are held. You see, Dick, all the people who live in this north country know what wonderful men they are, how brave and determined. They’re afraid of them. But it’s something more than fear. It goes deeper than that. It’s—it’s——I can’t tell you what it is. It isn’t exactly awe or reverence or fear. Perhaps it is a mixture of all these things. I really can’t tell you.” They struggled on, soon reaching the village, where they were met by Father Michaud, who was now in charge of the mission. Father Michaud carried a lantern. He was a much older man than either of his two associates. He held the lantern out before him, and as the boys came closer, peered up anxiously in their faces.
“Ah, monsieur, is it not terrible. Ees everyone safe? Are there no dead? So terrible—so terrible!” he lamented. “Even from here I hear those awful shouts an’ ze sound of ze rifles. Did you make a brave ree-sistance?”
“How could we?” answered Sandy. “Everybody ran away. At the first sound of firing, our brave little army vanished like a flock of frightened sheep.”
“An’ you saw nothing of ze Father Bleriot an’ ze good Dr. Brad-ee?”