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Updated: June 23, 2025
I offered rewards for news of any one man or woman who looked like the face that I had drawn." I put out my hand. "I hope that I have wronged you, monsieur." He bowed and touched my fingers. His own were icy, yet he shivered at the chill of mine. "Pemaou would not dare harm the woman. Monsieur de Montlivet, you know Indians. Surely Pemaou would not dare?" I gripped my knife. "No man knows Indians!
The Englishman forgot his dignity and cursed. I wished that I had been near enough to hold up a warning hand. I knew my turn was next, so was prepared. Pemaou sought me, and stood before me, but I would not see him; I looked through him as through glass. He spoke to me in French, but I was deaf. I heard the Senecas grunt with amusement. Pemaou heard it too, and his war plume quivered.
Then, indeed, the truth clapped me in the face, and I could have laughed aloud to think what a puppet I had been, just when I was comforting my vanity with my own shrewdness. Of course, Pemaou would spare me, and so prolong the game. As the son of the leader of the Hurons, he had more to learn from Longuant's speech than I. We were playing with the same cards, but his stakes were the larger.
"I will let you go when you tell me the truth. Remember, your men passed me this morning." "I tell you, I came alone." "Where are your Indians that Cadillac sent with you?" "I sprained my ankle and they left me." "Where did they go?" "How should I know? I tell you they left me." "Was Pemaou, the Huron, one of them?" "He was guide. Monsieur, what do you mean?" I could not answer.
I fingered my pipe and bit hard at its stem. "Pemaou has played carefully. He had the woman captured and brought to camp. The time was not ripe for him to use her, so he let me carry her away. But he has had me shadowed. You played well into his hands, for you furnished blankets and provisions. He had no intention of letting you find us. We are equal dupes. I see that I wronged you, monsieur."
We can learn from Pierre." The man's shoulders heaved. "Your men were cowards," he muttered. I looked at him. So a coward could despise a coward! "My men were wise," I corrected. "With Simon killed there were only two men left, one, rather, for Leclerc is a nonentity. Labarthe, left alone, was wise to surrender. He is skillful with Indians. Monsieur, tell me of your dealings with Pemaou.
"Pemaou was in the Ottawa camp," I said, and I told him what had happened. Cadillac's face hardened. "Then they have sent to demand the prisoner," he pondered moodily. "I had hoped for a few hours' respite. There might have been some way for the prisoner to escape." I had been walking the floor, grinding my mailed heels into the pine wood. "Escape!" I cried at him. "Escape!
With hate in my throat I tried to speak justly. "He has an intelligent mind, but a coward's spirit. I think the two elements war in him ceaselessly. I would not trust him, monsieur. Is he on friendly terms with Pemaou now?" "I do not know." "I wish you would find out for me. You have agents." "Madame de Montlivet could tell you." I felt Cadillac's eyes.
If I had been a live man I should have cried out at the irony of having to hear her say that to me. But I could not feel even shame. "Hush, hush!" I said slowly. "It is my turn now. Madame, I knew that you were in the Seneca camp." "But I was not." "It is the same as if you were. We had news from Indian runners that Starling had turned west and joined Pemaou.
But we were to travel no more toward the southwest that night. My plan was to turn back, paddle due east, and reach the peninsula before the late moonrise. This doubling on my track was to cheat Pemaou if he were indeed pursuing. Then I was planning to make the peninsula my headquarters for a time.
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