Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: July 27, 2025
The puzzle was left unsolved; for just then Louis Laplante found a flask of liquor and speedily divided its contents among the crowd which was not calculated to clear up mysteries of windows and mirrors among those addle-pates. Dull wit may be sport for drunken men, but it is mighty flat to an onlooker, and I was out of patience with their carousal.
Then I felt, what every one must have felt at some time, that a third person was watching us both. Following Eric's glance to a dark window recess directly opposite the door where I stood, I was horrified and riveted by the beady, glistening, insolent eyes of Louis Laplante, gazing out of the dusk with an expression of rakish amusement, the amusement of a spider when a fly walks into its web.
The moonlight shone across the wigwam opening. The captive had heard the English tongue, and was listening. But the Sioux squaw had also heard and recognized the voice of a former prisoner. She ran forward a pace, then hesitated, looking back doubtfully. As she turned her head, out from the gloom of the thicket with the leap of a lynx, lithe and swift, sprang the crouching form of Louis Laplante.
With other vagabond wanderers, the Frenchman had evidently been rummaging old Nor'-West vaults. "Tra-la, comrade," he shouted, leaping out of the cellar as soon as he saw me. "I, Louis Laplante, son of a seigneur, am resurrecting. I was a Plante! Now I'm a Louis d'or, fresh coined from the golden vein of dazzling wit.
"Well," said I, with a laugh, which surprised the rascals mightily, "now you've captured your elephant, what do you propose to do with him?" Without answering, the men shambled down to the landing place of the fort, jostling me along between the red-faced man and Louis Laplante.
"Most men are fools first, and then knaves, knaves because they have been fools," I returned to my uncle, "and I fancy Laplante has graduated from the fool stage by this time, and is a full diploma knave!" "That's all true," he retorted, "but don't you forget there's always fool enough left in the knave to give you your opportunity, if you're not a fool. Joint in the armor, lad!
As their figures passed into the woods, the girl broke away from her father's arm and stooped to the ground. "Pickin' flowers," was the laconic remark of the trader, who had helped me with Louis Laplante on the beach; and the man lay back full length against a rising knoll to drink in the delicious freshness of the night. Every man of us watched the vanishing forms.
Where are your eyes?" "I can't see in this poor light, Sir; but I also have a strangely carved thing a spear-head. Now if this head has no handle and this handle has no head they might fit," I went on watching Laplante, whose saucy assurance was deserting him. "Spear-head!" exclaimed Hamilton, beginning to understand I too had my design. "Where did you find it?"
Once the dogs threatened to create a disturbance, but a man quieted them, and with gratitude I recognized the voice of Laplante. Three times I tapped on the canvas but there was no response. I put my arm under the tent and rapped on the ground. Why did she not signal? Was the Sioux squaw from the other lodge listening? I could hear nothing but the tossings of the child.
His words recalled the real reason of my presence in the north country; for my quest had indeed been eclipsed by the fearful events of the past week. I signalled the rowers to go without him, waved a last farewell to Frances Sutherland, and turned to see Louis Laplante throw himself on the grass and cry like a schoolboy. Dismounting I knelt beside him.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking