“Canaille!” it cried, “cut-throats! villains! block-heads! pudding-heads! mais you are nice men to sleep at your posts; truly, that is so!  Shall I make this bear for to devour you?  Eh?  What?”

When the two men looked up and beheld the weird form of Pepin perched on the rock, it nearly finished them.  They had heard of many strange monsters, but here was something beyond their very wildest imaginings.  Of course, this bear was his attendant evil spirit, and it was a judgment upon them.  The Crop-eared one and the Black Bull Pup grovelled in an agony of terror.  Pepin never had such a time.  What would have happened it is hard to say had not Bastien Lagrange appeared upon the scene.  For Antoine, imagining that the movements of the Indians were generously intended as an invitation for him to indulge in frivolity, at once reared himself on his hind legs preparatory to dancing all over them.  Pepin slid from the rock and called his absent-minded friend to attention.  Bastien came forward wiping his forehead, declaring that he was all but dead, and the two worthy savages rose wonderingly to their feet The unstable breed, who at once took in the situation, and, as usual, derived a secret pleasure from observing the abject discomfiture of the Indians, at once proceeded to explain to them that the strange gentleman before them, whom they had mistaken for a celebrity from the ghost world, was no other than the celebrated Pepin Quesnelle, of whom they must have heard, and that the bear, whose magnanimity and playfulness they had just been witnesses of, was his equally distinguished friend and counsellor.  He also explained that, of course, no one in the land ever questioned Pepin’s right to do what he liked or to go where he chose.  There was no doubt that, in a different sphere of life, Bastien would have risen to eminence in diplomatic circles.  The two warriors having been handed back their knives, swore by the ghosts of their illustrious grandfathers and grandmothers, that, so far at least as they were concerned, the little but mighty man, with his servant the bear, might go or come just as he pleased.  Pepin and Bastien left the two now sleepless sentries at their posts, and passed through to the great wide terrace that overlooked the Saskatchewan, which, here describing a great half-circle, rushed like a mill-race between vast gloomy walls of rock.

When they reached the camp in the hollow, Jumping Frog came forward to meet them.  Pepin he had heard of, but had not seen before.  It was quite evident he resented his presence there.  He turned angrily upon the breed, whose joy at now having come to the end of his journey received a decided check from the reception he met with from the head man.  Jumping Frog looked at Bastien scornfully, and asked—­

“Brother, did I not send you on a mission? and what is this thing you have brought back?”