As Gershom assented, it was not two minutes ere all were at work.  For several days, each canoe had been furnished with provisions for a hasty flight.  It remained only to add such of the effects as were too valuable and necessary to be abandoned, and which had not been previously exposed without the palisades.  For half an hour le Bourdon and Gershom worked as for life.  No questions were asked, nor was a single moment lost, in a desire to learn more.  The manner in which Peter bore himself satisfied Boden that the emergency was pressing, and it is seldom that more was done by so few hands in so short a period.  Fortunately, the previous preparation greatly aided the present object, and nearly everything of any value was placed in the canoes within the brief space mentioned.  It then became necessary to decide concerning the condition in which Castle Meal was to be left.  Peter advised closing every aperture, shutting the gate, and leaving the dog within.  There is no doubt that these expedients prevented the parties falling early into the hands of their enemies; for the time lost by the savages in making their approaches to the hut was very precious to the fugitives.

Just as the canoes were loaded, Pigeonswing came in.  He announced that the whole band was in motion, and might be expected to reach the grove in ten minutes.  Placing an arm around the slender waist of Margery, le Bourdon almost carried her to his own canoe, Gershom soon had Dorothy in his little bark, while Peter entered that to the ownership of which he may be said to have justly succeeded by the deaths of the corporal and the missionary.  Pigeonswing remained behind, in order to act as a scout, having first communicated to Peter the course the last ought to steer.  Before the Chippewa plunged into the cover in which it was his intention to conceal himself, he made a sign that the band was already in sight

The heart of le Bourdon sunk within him, when he learned how near were the enemy.  To him, escape seemed impossible; and he now regretted having abandoned the defences of his late residence.  The river was sluggish for more than a mile at that spot, and then occurred a rift, which could not be passed without partly unloading the canoes, and where there must necessarily be a detention of more than an hour.  Thus, it was scarcely possible for canoes descending that stream to escape from so large a band of pursuers.  The sinuosities, themselves, would enable the last to gain fifty points ahead of them, where ambushes, or even open resistance, must place them altogether at the mercy of the savages.

Peter knew all this, as well as the bee-hunter, and he had no intention of trusting his new friends in a flight down the river.  Pigeonswing, with the sententious brevity of an Indian, had made an important communication to him, while they were moving, for the last time, toward the canoes, and he now determined to profit by it.  Taking the lead, therefore, with his own canoe, Peter paddled up, instead of down the stream, going in a direction opposite to that which it would naturally be supposed the fugitives had taken.  In doing this, also, he kept close under the bank which would most conceal the canoes from those who approached it on its southern side.