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"Not so fast with your going away, Jean, my brother," said Du Mesne. "Thou'rt ever hinting of corn and the bean; now see what can be done in this garden-place of the Iroquois and the Illini. You are appointed head gardener for the post!"
In his hand he supported a long-barreled musket, which he now examined carefully in the presence of the captain of the voyageurs. "Robert Challon!" next commanded Du Mesne, and in turn the one addressed looked over his piece, the captain also scrutinizing the flint and priming with careful eye. "Naturally, mes enfants," said he, "your weapons are perfect, as ever.
"Yet as to that," rejoined Du Mesne, as the two turned and walked back to the stockade, "we are not here to handle the affairs of either Louis or William. Let us e'en leave that to monsieur the intendant, and monsieur the governor, and our friends, the gray owls and the black crows, the Recollets and the Jesuits. I mind to call this spot home with you, if you like.
"Forward, then, mes amis!" cried Du Mesne, setting his own paddle-blade deep into the flood. "En roulant ma boule, roulant " Again the chorus rose, and again the hardy craft leaped onward into the unexplored. Day after day following this the journey was resumed, and day after day the travelers with eager eyes witnessed a prospect of continual change.
"Methinks you English are having enough to do here close at home," sneered Du Mesne. "I have heard somewhat of Steinkirk, and how ye ran from the half-dressed gentlemen of France." Dark looks followed this bold speech, which cut but too closely to the quick of English pride. Pembroke quelled the incipient outcry with calmer speech. "Peace, friends," said he.
Again the serrated bluffs broke back and showed vast vistas of green savannas, covered with tall, waving grasses, broken by little rolling hills, over which crossed herds of elk, and buffalo, and deer. "'Tis a land of plenty," said Du Mesne one day, breaking the habitual silence into which the party had fallen. "'Tis a great land, and a mighty.
The middle thane was feudal, but not honorary; he was also called a vavasor, and his lands a vavasory, which held of some mesne lord, and not immediately of the King.
There was an opening in the inclosure, as they discovered upon closer approach, and entering at this rude door, the party looked about them curiously. Du Mesne shut his lips tight together. This was no house built by the hands of white men. There were here no quarters, no shops, no chapel with its little bell.
"Monsieur is cast down," said Du Mesne to Pierre Noir later, as they reached the beach. "Now, what think you? "Usually, as you know, Pierre, it is a question of some woman. It reminds me, Wabana was remiss enough when I left her among the Illini with you. Now, God bless my heart, I find her how think you? With her crucifix lost, cooking for a dirty Ojibway!"
And as for mountains, all men know that the mountains lie to the east of us, not to the westward." "'Twould seem much hearsay," said Law, "this information which comes at second, third and fourth hand." "True," said Du Mesne, "but such is the source of the little we know of the valley of the Messasebe, and that which lies beyond it. None the less this idea offers interest."
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