Remember that."
My man turned a complacent eye. "If the master wishes," he said
dutifully. Then he gave a fat chuckle. "I promised to marry her when
we came back if she would save the Englishman,--but then I thought that
we should go home the other way."
Why try to teach decency to a barnyard brood! I dusted my fingers free
from the soil of him. "I will marry her to you, if only to see her
flout you," I promised vengefully. "Now to the canoes, and have your
paddles ready." I had no smile for him, though he sought it, as I
walked away.
The moon had swung free of the horizon, and cabins and trees stood out
as if made of white cardboard. The night was chilly, and as I crept
along the edge of the maize field, I caught my numbed toes on the
stiffened clods of earth turned up by last year's plowing. Yet I moved
silently, and by keeping in the shadow of blackened stumps and withered
maize stalks, I reached bow-shot of the commandant's door.
Truly one part of my plan had succeeded. The house was the centre of
an ant-like swarm skurrying here and there, apparently without method,
but with a jerkiness of movement that suggested attack and recoil. I
could distinguish the nose pendants of the Ottawas and the bristling
crests of the Hurons.
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