CHAPTER XXV
THE PERIL OF KATE
“What have we here, Henri?” exclaimed the man Kate had seen. She was struggling in the rude grasp of the other fellow, but was like a baby in the clutch of his powerful hands.
“I am surprised, Jacques, at what I have here,” was the reply, in French. “This girl, she surely must be the same we know lives in the cabin, up on the Ohio, belonging to our enemy, Armstrong. Yes, I am not mistaken. But what brings her down in this country of the Mississippi?”
Evidently both French trappers were astounded to see Kate there. Many hundreds of miles stood between the little settlement far up the Ohio and this region; and in those primitive days this represented an almost insurmountable obstacle.
“Look again and make sure, Henri,” said the other fellow, himself striding forward to leer into the face of the terrified girl, who by now understood that these men were the rascals who had given them so much trouble, trying to injure both Sandy and Bob, and finally robbing their cabin home when it was in the grip of the flood.
Why, one of them was even then wearing the wonderful wampum belt which Pontiac himself had bestowed upon the boys as an emblem of his friendship, and as a protection to their home against the savage fury of any Indians who belonged to the great confederation of which he was the leader.
“Well, what do you say now, Jacques?” demanded the first trapper, with a chuckle.
“Sacre! it is as you say; hard to believe as it is, she must be the same girl. Ha! I have an idea! It may explain the sound of the axes which we heard such long time on the trail now, as we come back once more to our old campground. See, there is the little boat she paddle down the river in. I begin to scent the truth now, Henri.”
“Then supposing you inform me as to the same, since I am groping in the dark,” demanded the other Frenchman.
“It may be that, if we but come closer to the old camp, we shall find it occupied by some of the hateful English settlers. I would not put it past them to descend the Ohio in a flatboat, till they come here. They have the nerve to face all the French along the Mississippi. And, Henri, among the rest is our old enemy, Armstrong. So you see now how the girl comes to be here.”