"Lois! You can not go to Catharines-town! That's flat!"
"I've wandered hungry and ragged for two years, asking the way. Do you suppose I have endured in vain? Do you suppose I shall give up now?"
"Lois!" I said seriously, "if it is true that the Senecas hold any white captives, their liberation is at hand. But that business concerns the army. And I promise you that if your mother be truly there among those unhappy prisoners she shall be brought back safely from the Vale Yndaia. I will tell Major Parr of this; he shall inform the General. Have no fear or doubt, dear maid. If she is there, and human power can save her, then is she saved already, by God's grace."
She said in a quiet voice:
"I must go with you. And that is why—or partly why—I asked you here tonight. Find me some way to go to Catharines-town. For I must go!"
"Why not inquire of me the road to hell?" I asked impatiently. She said between her teeth:
"Oh, any man might show me that. And guide me, too. Many have offered, Euan."
"What!"
"I ask your pardon. Two years of camps blunts any woman's speech."
"Lois," said I uneasily, "why do you wish to go to Catharines-town, when an armed force is going?"