Captain Mackintosh having read it attentively, directing his head clerk to go on with the trading, beckoned to the hump-backed Indian to accompany him out of ear-shot of the trading party, and having questioned him and received his answers, he summoned Le Brun.
Though the Captain had betrayed no emotion in presence of the strange looking little Indian, his chief hunter remarked his agitation. “What has happened, Monsieur Capitaine?” he asked.
“This is a matter of life and death, and I know that I can trust you, Le Brun,” said Captain Mackintosh, not directly answering him. “Take the fleetest of our horses and ride after Monsieur Norman and the young ladies. Spare neither spur nor whip. Desire them to return immediately to the fort, as hard as they can gallop. Here, take this with you,” and he wrote a few words on a slip of paper to be delivered to Norman.
“Monsieur Capitaine can depend on me. I will make La Froule fly like the whirlwind,” said Le Brun, and doubling up the paper, he hurried away to obey the order he had received.
“I would that I could go myself,” murmured Captain Mackintosh, “but my duty compels me to be here, and even for my dear children’s sake, I must not desert my post when danger threatens.”
It was some time before Le Brun could catch the horse he had selected.
Captain Mackintosh endeavoured to conceal his anxiety, especially from his visitors, whose keen eyes had been watching him narrowly though in no other way did they show that they suspected the little hump-backed Indian had come with any information relating to them. Captain Mackintosh, who had gone up to the platform, gave a sigh of relief, as he at length saw Le Brun gallop off at full speed in the direction the riding party had taken.
Having seen Le Brun off, Captain Mackintosh returned to superintend the trading, which the Indians seemed inclined to prolong more than usual. They haggled over every article, and insisted on their peltries being weighed more than once, on the pretence that there was some mistake, or that the scales were out of order. They examined the goods offered to them over and over again, handing them round to each other, and criticising their quality. They then requested that tobacco might be supplied to them, as they were inclined to have a smoke before proceeding further.
One of them then got up and spoke. The meaning of his speech was difficult to understand, though uttered with that flow of language of which most Indians have the command.
Captain Mackintosh bore all this with the necessary patience. He did not wish to come to a rupture with his visitors, though from the warning he had received, he strongly suspected that treachery was intended.