She did not answer, and again she laid her head on the table.  We had but a few minutes left now.  I saw her look up at me twice before I heard her whisper, “Monsieur, you said that I loved you.  But you never said that you”——­

“Would it change your decision if I said it now?”

“No, no!  It could not.”

I slipped to my knees and laid my lips on her clasped hands.  “You are part of me.  You go with me whether you will or no.  You are in the red sunsets that we saw together, and in the white dawns when we ate our meal and meat side by side.  You are fettered to me.  I cannot rid myself of your presence for a moment.  I shall tell you more of this when you come to me again.”

She bent to me with the color driven from her lips.  “Don’t!  Don’t!  We will learn to forget.  We are both rulers of our wills.  We will learn to forget.  Wait——­ Are they calling me?”

We listened.  Cadillac was at the door.  We both rose.

“In a moment,” I called to him.  Then I turned.  “Whatever happens, keep to the eastward.  Don’t let your Indians turn.  Refuse, and make Starling refuse, to listen to any change of plan.”

She was trembling.  She seemed not to hear me, and I said the words again.  “You must promise.  You are not to go to the west.”

And then she put out her hands to me.  “Yes, yes, I understand.  I promise.  I shall not go west.  But, monsieur, do not—­do not go with me to the shore.  Let me go alone.  Let us part here.”

I could have envied her the power to tremble.  I felt like stone.  I had but one arm, but I drew her to me till I felt her heart on mine.  “This is not the end.  This is not the end.  But till you come to me again”——­ And I would have laid my lips on hers.

But she was out of my grasp.  “We—­we——­ It was a compact.  If we——­ If we did that, we could not part.  Good-by, monsieur.  I beg you not to go with me.  God be with you.  God be with you, monsieur.”

I followed to the door and held to its casing as I looked after her.  She had met Cadillac, and was walking with him.  She, whom I had always seen erect, was leaning on his arm.

CHAPTER XXIX

I FOLLOW MY PATH

A full hour later I went to Cadillac.  “I am leaving,” I said.  “I am taking Pierre.  The Ottawa girl, his wife, says she is going with us.  It is foolish,—­but Pierre wishes it.  He is dough in her hands.”

Cadillac shook my well shoulder.  “Go to bed for a day.  You are ash color.”

“No, I must be on my way.  The time is short enough as it is.  Have the Senecas gone?”

“No, it will be some hours before they are ready.  If you start now, you will be enough in advance to keep out of sight.”

I could not forbear a shrug.  “Three hours’ start to collect an army!  Well, it shall serve.  And you follow to-morrow?”