"And now tell me, have you seen that girl I asked you about since you saw her three days back?"
A thoughtful look came in the half-breed's face, and his unsteady eyes sought the canoe lying at his feet. He thought of the white tent on the river bank and of the man sleeping outside of it, and instantly guessed who had occupied the tent.
"Oui!" he replied laconically.
"You have?" Sudden excitement blazed in Ainley's face as he asked the question. "When? Where?"
The half-breed visioned the sleeping camp once more, and with another glance at the stolen canoe, gave a calculated answer. "Yesterday. She go up zee oder river in a canoe with a white man."
"Up the other river?"
"Oui! I pass her and heem, both paddling. It seems likely dat dey go to Fort Winagog. Dey paddle quick."
"Fort Winagog!" As he echoed the words, a look of thought came into Ainley's eyes. Helen would have heard that name as the next destination of the party, and if the man who had saved her from the river was in a hurry and travelling that way it was just possible that she had decided to accompany him there. He nodded his head at the thought, and then a new question shot into his mind, a question to which he gave utterance.
"Who was the man—I mean the man who was with the girl in the canoe?"
"I not know," answered the half-breed, trying to recall the features of the sleeping man whose canoe he had stolen. "Heem tall man, with hair that curl like shavings."