met a lieutenant. He came up and ordered them angrily to unbind
Maisonville and bring him before the Colonel. Fletcher laughed, whipped
out his hunting knife, and cut the thongs; but he and Willis had scarce
got twenty paces from the officer before they seized poor Maisonville by
the hair and made shift to scalp him. This was merely backwoods play,
had Maisonville but known it. Persuaded, however, that his last hour was
come, he made a desperate effort to clear himself, whereupon Fletcher cut
off a piece of his skin by mistake. Maisonville, making sure that he had
been scalped, stood groaning and clapping his hand to his head, while the
two young rascals drew back and stared at each other.

"What's to do now?" said Willis.

"Take our medicine, I reckon," answered Fletcher, grimly. And they
seized the tottering man between them, and marched him straightway to the
fire where Clark stood.

They had seen the Colonel angry before, but now they were fairly withered
under his wrath. And he could have given them no greater punishment, for
he took them from the firing line, and sent them back to wait among the
reserves until the morning.

"Nom de Dieu!" said Maisonville, wrathfully, as he watched them go, "they
should hang."

"The stuff that brought them here through ice and flood is apt to boil
over, Captain," remarked the Colonel, dryly.

"If you please, sir," said I, "they did not mean to cut him, but he
wriggled."