"Sacre! vat shall be done wiz zem?" demanded Lacroix, half lowering his levelled rifle; for, since the boys had cast away their weapons, they could hardly be deemed dangerous, especially since there were two men to each lad.
"It was a clever idea you haf, Armand, to come back to ze sacred oak, where ze Indians, you say, would nevaire interrupt us, for a talk. Only for zat we would not haf ze pleasure of meeting our young friends. You ask what sall we do wif zem? Eef I haf my way, I say, turn zem loose and zen give each twenty paces to run, after wich we would fire. I haf drive ze head of a nail at more zan zat."
"Ze idea heem not haf bad, Jacques; but, after all, what could equal ze pleasure of turning zese two bold trailers over to ze Pottawottomies wif Pontiac. Zey know how to torture ze foe. Zey haf long experience. Eet is no business of ours how zey put ze prisoner to death; zey are our allies, and we cannot let escape zose who carry ze great secret of ze council."
Bob knew the character of these half-savage French trappers. He believed they were on a par with the renegade white man whom he had heard utter such bitter words at the council fire, and whom he fancied must be the notorious Simon Girty, himself. Had it been his own life that was in peril, Bob would have refused to make any sort of appeal to the lawless trappers; but, for the sake of little Kate, he felt that he must lower his pride to plead with them.
"Lacroix and Larue," he said, slowly, and with an earnestness in his manner that chained their attention; "for myself I would scorn to plead; but, because of the poor child who is at this hour a prisoner in the Iroquois village, I ask you to let us go free. Her poor mother's heart is nearly broken, and if Kate never comes back, it will surely give way. If you would only let us go, so that we might try to set her free, we give you our solemn promise that we will deliver ourselves up to you again, if we survive, so that you can do what you will."
The two Frenchmen exchanged glances. They could not but be influenced by the brave words of the half-grown lad. At the same time, they had too long led utterly wicked lives to allow themselves to be tempted to do the right thing now.
"Listen to zat, would you, Larue?" said Armand, with a sneer. "Ze cub wants us to let him go free zis time. He even promises zat he will call heemself our prisoner at any time in ze future, eef he lives. It is to laugh. I haf always believe ze bird in ze hand is much better zan two in ze bush. How ees it, Jacques, shall we bow ze young monsieur and hees brother off ze premises, or turn zem over to ze savages, to run ze gantlet, and afford much sport?"
"Our duty eet is plain, Armand," the second Frenchman remarked, with a chuckle; "we dare not play double wif our allies. Zey would turn on us and poof! zat would be ze end of everyzing. No, it must be zat we make ze prisoner, and march ze cubs in to ze Iroquois town to be punished as spies."
"Oh!" said Sandy, unable to entirely keep quiet, with his pulses beating like a furious trip-hammer.