“Come,” he said, smiling, “LeFroy can handle them now.  May we not go to your cottage?  I would hear of your progress—­the progress of your school.  And also,” he bowed, “is it not possible that the great, what do you call her, Lena, has prepared supper?  I’ve eaten nothing since morning.”

“Forgive me!” cried the girl.  “I had completely forgotten supper.  But, the men?  Have they not eaten since morning?”

Lapierre smiled.  “They will eat,” he answered, “when their work is done.”

Supper over, the two seated themselves upon the little veranda.  Along the beach the fires still flared, and still the men, like a huge, slow-moving endless chain, carried the supplies to the store-house.  Lapierre waved his hand toward the scene.

“You see now,” he smiled, “why I built the storehouse so large?”

Chloe nodded, and regarded him intently.  “Yes, I see that,” she answered gravely, “but there are things I do not see.  Of course you have heard of the attack by MacNair’s Indians?”

Lapierre assented.  “At Smith Landing I heard it,” he answered, and waited for her to proceed.

“Had you expected this attack?”

Lapierre glanced at her in well-feigned surprise.

“Had I expected it, Miss Elliston, do you think I would have gone to the Southward?  Would I have left you to the mercy of those brutes?  When I thought you were in danger on Snare Lake, did I——­”

The girl interrupted him with a gesture.  “No!  No!  I do not think you anticipated the attack, but——­”

Lapierre finished her sentence.  “But, MacNair told you I did, and that I had timed accurately my trip to the Southward?  What else did he tell you?”

“He told me,” answered Chloe, “that had you not anticipated the attack you would not have armed my Indians with Mausers.  He said that my Indians were armed to kill men, not animals.”  She paused and looked directly into his eyes.  “Mr. Lapierre, where did those rifles come from?”

Lapierre answered without a moment’s hesitation.  “From my—­cache to the westward.”  He leaned closer.  “I told you once before,” he said, “that I could place a hundred guns in the hands of your Indians, and you forbade me.  While I could remain in the North, I bowed to your wishes.  I know the North and its people, and I knew you would be safer with the rifles than without them.  In event of an emergency, the fact that your Indians were armed with guns that would shoot farther, and harder, and faster, than the guns of your enemies, would offset, in a great measure, their advantage in numbers.  It seems that my judgment was vindicated.  I disobeyed you flatly.  But, surely, you will not blame me!  Oh!  If you knew——­”

Chloe interrupted him.

“Don’t!” she cried sharply.  “Please—­not that!  I—­I think I understand.  But there are still things I do not understand.  Why did one of my own Indians attempt to murder MacNair?  And how did MacNair know that he would attempt to murder him?  He said you had ordered it so.  And the man was one of your Indians—­one of those you left with LeFroy.”