"He did not answer, but stooped and lit the sticks here and there. All at
once he snatched a burning stick, and it and the torch he thrust, like
lightning, in the faces of his guards, blinding them. Then he sprang to
the stake, and, with a huge pull, tore it from the ground, girl and all,
and rushed to the shore of the Lake, with her tied so in his arms.

"He had been so swift that, at first, no one stirred. He reached the
shore, rushed into the water, dragging a boat out with one hand as he did
so, and, putting the girl in, seized a paddle and was away with a start.
A few strokes, and then he stopped, picked up a hatchet that was in the
boat with many spears, and freed the girl. Then he paddled on, trusting,
with a small hope, that through his great strength he could keep ahead
till darkness came, and then, in the gloom, they might escape. The girl
also seized an oar, and the canoe--the king's own canoe--came on like a
swallow.

"But the tribe was after them in fifty canoes, some coming straight
along, some spreading out to close in later. It was no equal game, for
these people were so quick and strong with the oars, and they were a
hundred or more to two. There could be but one end. It was what the Great
Slave had looked for: to fight till the last breath. He should fight for
the woman who had risked all for him--just a common woman of the north,
but it seemed good to lose his life for her; and she would be happy to
die with him.

"So they stood side by side when the spears and arrows fell round them,
and they gave death and wounds for wounds in their own bodies. When, at
last, the Indians climbed into the canoe, the Great Slave was dead of
many wounds, and the woman, all gashed, lay with her lips to his wet, red
cheek. She smiled as they dragged her away; and her soul hurried after