The gray light of morning began to dawn sullenly. She watched the faint streaks stealing through the loopholes. Renée still slept. She went to the flap of the wigwam and raised it. The rain was pouring in torrents. There at her feet lay a body, the leggings and deer-skin breeches ploughed by a curious zigzag streak, scorched and torn, and the blanket shrivelled to fragments. Some figures were moving about like wraiths in the dusky light. It was a weird picture. She was not at all afraid. She was used to forest storms.
One of the figures came nearer. "Ma'm'selle!" it said in a whisper.
The familiar word was the sweetest music. She stretched out her hand.
"I never saw anything so terrible. And you--lived? Others have gone. Three are dead. One is drowned, and Black Feather--" Valbonais's voice trembled.
"Well!" with a long breath. Did she hope for his death?
"He ordered the men to look after the boats. They had been drawn up, but the ground was sloping, the rain a torrent, the blackness something fearful save when the blinding blaze of light came. He was there ordering, cursing, threatening. Then a tree crashed down and pinned him to the earth. He is badly hurt about the legs, but has voice enough left in him for four."
"I am going to escape. There never can be a more favorable moment."
"Oh! oh! oh!" she cried in a piercing tone.
"I shall find my way to St. Louis. Ma'm'selle, if you and the child dared and would trust me. For if I have heard aright, you are to be taken to some chief up in the straits. And if you shrank from going----"
"I shall never reach there alive. I know a swift, unfailing poison--" And her words came out sharply.
He gave her a half-horrified, half-entreating look.
"It will be a hard journey. But if we should start now there is not much chance of our being overtaken. Everything is in such confusion, and it may be weeks before Black Feather is able to move about. We would follow the river as well as we could, keeping out of sight if the other boats come up, as they are likely to do. For the rest we must trust to the good God. I shall take a gun. I have dreamed this over many times. And if you will go----"
"It will clear up presently, by noon. Meanwhile, I could plan all the arrangements. Just now you are not a close prisoner. There is no telling what may happen to-morrow."