"Here--at Hawkins's, mean you? Ten days, as I live; would you believe I could ever have survived so grievous a siege?" and he looked appealingly about upon the bare apartment. "Ten days of Hawkins and of Sam, Monsieur; ay! and of Ol' Burns; of sky, and woods, and river, with never so much as a real white man even to drink liquor with. By Saint Louis! but I shall be happy enough to face you across the board to-night. Yet surely it is not your purpose to halt here long?"
"Only until I succeed in joining some party travelling westward to the Illinois country."
"No! is that your aim? 'T is my trip also, if Fate be ever kind enough to bring hither a guide. _Sacre_! there was one here but now, as odd a devil as ever bore rifle, and he hath taken the western trail alone, for he hated me from the start. That was Ol' Burns. Know you him?"
"'T was he who brought the message that sent me here; yet he said little of his own journey. But you mention not where you are bound?"
"I seek Fort Dearborn, on the Great Lake."
"That likewise is to be the end of my journey. You go to explore?"
"Explore? Faith, no," and he patted his hand upon the bench most merrily. "There are but two reasons to my mind important enough to lure a French gentleman into such a hole as this, and send him wandering through your backwoods,--either war or love, Monsieur; and I know of no war that calleth me."
Love, as he thus spoke of it, was almost an unknown term to me then; and, in truth, I scarcely grasped the full significance of his meaning.
"You seek some lady, then, at Fort Dearborn?" I asked, for his tone seemed to invite the inquiry.
"Ay!" with quickened enthusiasm; "'tis there Toinette has hidden herself for this year or more,--Toinette, on my word as a French soldier, the fairest maid of Montreal. I have just discovered her whereabouts, yet I shall win her ere I traverse these trails again, or I am not Villiers de Croix."
"I travel thither to bring back a little orphan child with me," I explained simply, in response to his look, "and will most gladly aid you where I can."
Before he could answer, Hawkins, a gaunt, silent frontiersman, together with Sam, entered the room, bearing between them our evening meal.