"But why should they not cross the lake and land on the other side?"
Mr. Welch said.

"If you and I were in that canoe," the hunter answered, "that's about
what we should do; but, not to say that it's a long row for 'em, they
two young uns would never get across; the Injuns would have 'em
before they had been gone an hour. There's my canoe lying under the
bushes; she'd carry four, and would go three feet to their two."

"I had forgotten about that," William Welch said, and then added,
after a pause: "The Indians may not find it."

"You needn't hope that," the hunter answered; "they have found it
long before this. I don't want to put you out of heart; but I tell ye
ye'll see them on the water before many minutes have passed."

"Then they are lost," Mrs. Welch said, sinking down in her chair and
bursting into tears.

"They air in God's hands, ma'am," the hunter said, "and it's no use
trying to deceive you."

"Would it be of any use," William Welch asked, after a pause, "for me
to offer the redskins that my wife and I will go out and put
ourselves in their hands if they will let the canoe go off without
pursuit?"

"Not it," the hunter replied decidedly. "You would be throwing away
your own lives without saving theirs, not to mention, although that
doesn't matter a straw, the lives of the rest of us here. It will be