"Pepin," he observed, "I'm glad to find you're not one
of those who forget their old friends."

"Did you ever think I would? Eh? What?" asked the manikin
cynically, with his head on one side.

"I don't suppose I ever thought about the matter in that
way," said Douglas, "but if I'd done so, I'm bound to
say that I should have had some measure of faith in you,
Pepin Quesnelle. You have known me for many years now,
and you know I never say what I do not mean."

"So!... that is so. _Bien!_" remarked Pepin obviously
pleased. "But the question we have had to settle is this.
If we let your daughter go now, how is Bastien here to
account for his prisoner in the morning? He knows that
one day he will have to stand on the little trap-door in
the scaffold floor at Regina, and that he will twirl
round and round so--like to that so"--picking up a hobble
chain and spinning it round with his hand--"while his
eyes will stick out of his head like the eyes of a
flat-fish; but at the same time he does not want to be
shot by order of Riel or Gabriel Dumont to-morrow for
losing a prisoner."

"Yees, they will shoot--shoot me mooch dead!" observed
Bastien feelingly.

"So we have think," continued the dwarf, "that he should