So, boys, I
go to the camp alone; and, God willing, I will bring back your sister,
or die in the attempt. I shall not go single-handed; see, I have here
scarlet-cloth, beads, and powder and shot. I carry no firewater; it is a
sin and a shame to tempt these poor wretches to their own destruction; it
makes fiends of them at once."
It was to no purpose that Hector and Louis passionately besought old Jacob
to let them share the dangers of the expedition; the old man was firm, and
would not be moved from his purpose.
"Look you, boys," he said, "if I do not return by the beginning of the rice
harvest, you may suppose that evil has befallen me and the girl; then I
would advise you to take care for your own safety, for if they do not
respect my grey head, neither will they spare your young ones. In such
case, make yourselves a good canoe--a dug-out [Footnote: Log canoe.] will
do--and go down the lake till you are stopped by the rapids; [Footnote:
Crook's Rapids.] make a portage there; but as your craft is too weighty to
carry far, e'en leave her and chop out another, and go down to the Falls;
[Footnote: Heeley's Falls, on the Trent.
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