"
"Oh, you must not---- The Seneca messengers, you will let them go back
and rejoin their camp?"
"We can do nothing else."
"And you will follow them, and attack them at La Baye?"
"So we plan."
"But the Senecas trust you."
"Not for a moment. They think we fear their power over the Hurons,--as
we do,--so they are reckless. They are undoubtedly carrying peace
belts from our Hurons to the Iroquois and the English. We must
intercept them."
She tried to ward my words, and all that they stood for, away. "You
see! You see!" she cried, "we must part. We must part while we can.
Monsieur, say no more. I beg you, monsieur." And she dropped in a
chair by the table and laid her head in her arms.
I could say nothing. I stood helpless and dizzy. I had asked her to
forget her country. Yet not once had she asked me to forget mine. If
I gave up my plans I could go to her now and draw her to my breast. I
gripped the table, and I did not see clearly. To save her life I had
jeopardized my plans; to follow her here I had jeopardized them again.
But now that I knew her to be safe---- No, I could not turn back; I
must walk the path I had laid for myself.
"What will you do with yourself, with your life?" I asked with stiff
lips.
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