“It is nothing to do,” replied the other.  “It is but the remedy of my people for such things.”  Then he added, with a sort of pride,

“The pale-faces are wise in many matters that we poor red men know nothing of; but we have at least learned that for every evil there is a remedy close at hand, and that wherever poisonous serpents are found there also grows a plant that will render their poison harmless.  In a short time thy hand will be as sound as before it laid hold of Chitta-wewa, the great water-snake.”

“Tis marvellous!” exclaimed Rene; “and if thou wouldst return with me to France, bringing with thee a few of these samples and thy knowledge of their application, thou wouldst become a great medicine-man and obtain much honor of my people.”

Has-se only shook his head and smiled at this suggestion; then he said,

“For a time thou must lie perfectly quiet, and keep that upon thy hand wet with cool water.  Meantime I will carry out a plan of which I have just conceived the idea.  Near by, from the head of this lagoon, there runs a narrow trail by which a great bend in the stream is cut off, and a point much lower down upon it is reached.  If thou wilt remain here and nurse thy hand, I will cross to the lower stream by this trail; and it may be that I will thus gain more speedy information concerning those whom we follow.”

Rene at once agreed to this plan, and was soon left alone to nurse his hand and meditate upon his present strange position.  From his savage surroundings his thoughts ran back to the uncle whom he had left in Fort Caroline to battle with sickness, and possibly with starvation and the upbraidings of his own men.  The boy’s heart was full of tenderness for the brave old soldier who had so promptly assumed the part of a father towards him; and had he not been restrained by the consciousness of the vital importance of the mission he had undertaken, he would have been inclined to return at once and share whatever trials were besetting the chevalier.  From him the boy’s thoughts sped to France and the old chateau in which he was born.  He almost laughed aloud as he imagined the look of consternation with which old Francois would regard him if he could now see him, lying alone in a fragile craft, such as the old servant had never imagined, in the midst of a terrible wilderness of great moss-hung trees, queer-looking plants, black waters, and blacker mud.

From these reveries he was suddenly startled by the sound of a slight splash in the water and a subdued human voice.  Raising his head very cautiously above the side of the canoe, Rene caught a glimpse, at the mouth of the little lagoon in which his own craft was concealed, of another canoe, in which were seated two Indians.  It was headed up-stream, but its occupants had paused in their paddling, and from their gestures were evidently considering the exploration of the very place in which he lay hidden from them.  In one of them Rene recognized the unwelcome face of Chitta the Snake, but the other he had never before seen.