grave. "No, monsieur, it is just begun," he corrected, and I thought,
as I saw his look at the retreating shore, that he shrunk from the
uncertainties ahead more than from the death behind. Was there a
coward streak in him, after all? I turned my back, and did not speak
again.




CHAPTER VIII

PARTNERS

To paddle by day, to work in sun and breeze, is a pastime, but to
paddle by night drains a man's endurance. For long hours our canoes
nosed their way around headland after headland and along wild shores
peopled by beasts and shadows. The black water was a threat and a
mystery, and the moonlight was chill, so that our limbs, which should
have bounded with red blood, were aching and leaden with the cold. I
stretched myself with relief when the red-streaked horizon told me it
was time to land and make camp.

I was prepared for pursuit, but knew that, with Pierre in one canoe and
Labarthe in the other, we must be well in advance of it. Now I
purposed to stop and hide. It is more to my taste to be hound than
hare, and I do not like an enemy snapping at my heels. So I prepared
to land. Once the pursuing canoes had passed us we could take up the
chase on our own part and follow at leisure.

I called the word to the other canoe, and then as we swung shoreward I