“You question my courage to venture it?”

“It has been my experience that the cock that crows the loudest fights the least.”

“Oh, hush, Messieurs!” broke in Mademoiselle, her voice showing suppressed amusement.  “This platform is far too narrow to quarrel upon; and, besides, the condition of the wager is most easily met,—­that is, if my lips be deemed of sufficiently rosy hue.”

I know I stood with opened mouth, so astounded by these mocking words as to be stricken dumb; but not so De Croix.  The audacity of his nature made eager response to the bold challenge.

“Do you mean what you say, Toinette?” he asked, striving to gain a view of her face in the darkness.

“Do I?  And pray, why not?” she questioned lightly.  “One kiss is not so very much to give, and I shall never miss it.  ’T is duller here than at Montreal, and no doubt ’t will greatly interest me to witness the race.  Surely it will prove a better way to end your foolish quarrel than to shoot each other.  But come, Messieurs, why do you hesitate so long? is not the prize enough?”

He bowed gallantly, and took her hand.

“’T would be the ransom of a king,” he answered; “though first I wish to know the terms of this contest more clearly.”

She looked out into that silent and lonely night, her eyes upon the distant gleam, and instinctively our glances followed hers.  It was a dull desolation, with no sound, no movement, in all the black void.  The stars gleamed dull on the water of the river beneath us, and we could dimly see the denser shadow of the opposite shore; beyond this, nothing was apparent save that distant candle flame.  What lay between,—­what strange obstruction of land, what ambushed foes,—­neither of us had means of knowing.  We could simply plunge into the mystery of it blindfolded by the fates.  Yet to draw back now would brand either of us forever with the contempt of her who had challenged us so lightly.

“’T is all simple enough,” she said at last, her eyes glowing with quick excitement.  “The goal is yonder where that light glows so clearly, though I warn you the longest way round may prove the surest in the end.  To the one of you who reaches there first and returns here, I am to give one kiss as a measure of reward.  I care not how it may be accomplished,—­such minor matters rest with your own wits.”

“But the young girl we seek,” he insisted; “must she also be brought here upon the return?”

“Pish! what care I what may be done with the girl?  Besides, she is far safer from the savages there than she would be here.”

I saw De Croix lean far out over the sharpened palisades and peer downward.  The movement gave me instantly a thought of his purpose, and, unnoticed, I loosened the pistol-belt about my waist and silently dropped it upon the platform.  Whatever desperate chance he might choose to take, I was determined now to equal.