"And now tell me, have you seen that girl I asked you about since you saw her three days back?"

A thoughtful look came in the half-breed's face, and his unsteady eyes sought the canoe lying at his feet. He thought of the white tent on the river bank and of the man sleeping outside of it, and instantly guessed who had occupied the tent. "Oui!" he replied laconically.

"When?

"You have? Sudden excitement blazed in Ainley's face as he asked the question. Where?"

The half-breed visioned the sleeping camp once more, and with another glance at the stolen canoe, gave a calculated answer. "Yesterday. She go up zee oder river in a canoe with a white man." "Up the other river?"

"Oui! I pass her and heem, both paddling. It seems likely dat dey go to Fort Winagog. Dey paddle quick."

"Fort Winagog!" As he echoed the words, a look of thought came into Ainley's eyes. Helen would have heard that name as the next destination of the party, and if the man who had saved her from the river was in a hurry and travelling that way it was just possible that she had decided to accompany him there. He nodded his head at the thought, and then a new question shot into his mind, a question to which he gave utterance.

"Who was the man with the girl in the canoe?"

I mean the man who was

"I not know," answered the half-breed, trying to recall the features of the sleeping man whose

canoe he had stolen.

"Heem tall man, with hair

that curl like shavings."

"Tell me more," demanded Ainley sharply, as an unpleasant suspicion shot into his mind.

"I not know more," protested the half-breed. "I see heem not ver' close; an' I travel fast. I give heem an' girl one look, cry bonjour! an' then he is past. Vous comprenez?

"Yes," replied the white man standing there with a look of abstraction on his face. For a full two minutes he did not speak again, but stood as if resolving some plan in his mind, then he looked at the half-breed again.

"You are going up the river?" he asked.

"Oui!"

"Then I want you to do something for me. A day's journey or so further on you will find a camp, it is the camp of a great man of the Company

"I know it," interrupted the half-breed, “I haf seen it."

"Of course, I had forgotten you had been in the neighbourhood of it! Well, I want you to go there as fast as you can and to take a note for me. There will be a reward."

"I will take zee note."

'Then you must wait whilst I write it."

Seating himself upon a fallen tree he scribbled a hasty note to Sir James Yardely, telling him that he had news of Helen and that he hoped very shortly to return to camp with her, and having addressed it gave it to the half-breed.

There is need for haste," he said. "I will reward you now, and the great man whose niece the girl is, will reward you further when you take the news of her that is in the letter. But you will remember not to talk. I should say nothing about what you saw up the river a few days back. Sir James is a suspicious man and he might think that you fired those shots yourself in which case He shrugged his shoulders, then taking out a tendollar note, handed it to the half-breed, whose eyes gleamed as he took it. "Now," he continued, "shoulder your canoe, and come along to the river. I should like to see you start. I'll carry your gun, and that sack of yours.'

99

He took the half-breed's gun, picked up the beans, and in single file they marched through the wood back to where the Indian sat patiently waiting. On their appearance he looked round, and as his eyes fell on the half-breed's face a momentary flash came into them, and then as it passed he continued to look at the new-comer curiously.

Ainley rapidly explained the situation and the Indian listened without comment. He waited until the half-breed was actually afloat and out of earshot, and then he spoke.

66

"Bad man!" he said. No good.

I have seen heem b'fore."

"Maybe," answered Ainley lightly.

Heem liar.

"So much

the better for one thing! But there's no reason why he should lie about this matter, and I think he was telling the truth about that meeting up the

other river. We'll follow the trail anyway; and Will the portage or the river

we will start at once. be the better way?"

Portage," said the Indian, following the halfbreed with his eyes.

"Then we had better get going. We've no time to lose, and you needn't worry yourself about that fellow. He'll do what I've asked him, for the sake of himself. He can have no reason for doing otherwise."

But in that, as in his statement that the half-breed could have no reason for lying, Ainley was mistaken. The stolen canoe was a very ample reason, and so little inclined was the thief to seek the presence of Sir James Yardely, that when he reached a creek three miles or so up the river, he deliberately turned aside, and at his first camp he used Ainley's note to light his pipe, tossing what was left of it into the fire without the least compunction. Then, as he smoked, a look of malice came on his face.

Dat man fire zee shots.

I get heem one of dese for it, good an' plenty.

"No, I not meestake. I sure of dat; an' by Gar! days, an' I make heem pay Mais I wonder why he shoot? I wonder eef zee white mees, she knew?"

And whilst he sat wondering, Gerald Ainley and his Indian companion, travelling late, toiled on, following the river trail to Fort Winagog on a vain quest.

S

CHAPTER IX

UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE

LOWLY, and with the pungent taste of raw brandy in his mouth, Hubert Stane came to himself. The first thing he saw was Helen Yardely's white face bending over him, and the first sound he heard was a cry of sobbing gladness. "Thank God! Thank God!"

He did not understand, and at her cry made an attempt to move. As he did so, sharp pains assailed him, and forced a groan from his lips.

"Oh!" cried the girl. "You must lie still, Mr. Stane. I am afraid you are rather badly hurt, indeed I thought you were killed. I am going to do what I can for you, now that I know that you are not. Your leg is broken, I think, and you have other injuries, but that is most serious, and I must manage to set it, somehow."

"To set it

he began, and broke off. "Yes! I am afraid I shall not prove a very efficient surgeon; but I will do my best. I hold the St. John's Ambulance medal, so you might be worse off," she said, with a wan smile.

"Much," he agreed.

"Now that you are conscious I am going to leave you for a few minutes. I must find something that will serve for splints."