zest in living, that, where himself was concerned, his vanity was not
easily touched. So, looking with genial dryness, "You will hardly
believe it, of course," he said, "but wings I have not yet grown, and the
walking is bad 'twixt here and the Chateau St. Louis."

"Iroquois traps," she suggested, with a smile. "With a trick or two of
English footpads," was his reply.

Meanwhile his eye had loitered between the two men in council at the
farther window and the garden, into which he and the girl were looking.
Presently he gave a little start and a low whistle, and his eyelids
slightly drooped, giving him a handsome sulkiness. "Is it so?" he said
between his teeth: "Radisson--Radisson, as I live!"

He had seen a man cross a corner of the yard. This man was short, dark-
bearded, with black, lanky hair, brass earrings, and buckskin leggings,
all the typical equipment of the French coureur du bois. Iberville had
only got one glance at his face, but the sinister profile could never be
forgotten. At once the man passed out of view. The girl had not seen
him, she had been watching her companion. Presently she said, her
fingers just brushing his sleeve, for he stood eyeing the point where the
man had disappeared: "Wonderful! You look now as if you would fight.
Oh, fierce, fierce as the governor when he catches a French spy!"

He turned to her and, with a touch of irony, "Pardon!" he retorted.
"Now I shall look as blithe as the governor when a traitor deserts to
him."

Of purpose he spoke loud enough to be heard by the governor and his
friend. The governor turned sharply on him. He had caught the ring in