"You're young. I'm going back to France for a while. France will not be what it was under the Empire. I'm tired of most things, however, and my holdings here make me independent of changes there." "What reason have you to think that she is dead?" "Do you know the Indiana Territory well?" "The northern part only." "It happened in what was called the Pigeon Roost settlement at the fork of the White River. The Kickapoos and Winnebagoes did it. There were about two dozen people in the settlement." "I asked how you know these things." "I have some of the best Indian runners that ever trod moccasins, and when I set them to scouting, they generally find what I want;--so I know a great many things." "But Paul--" "It's an old custom to adopt children into the tribes. You know your father, Chief Williams, is descended from a white girl who was a prisoner. There were about two dozen people in the settlement, men, women and children. The majority of the children were dashed against trees. It has been consolation to me to think she did not survive in the hands of savages." The hidden causes which work out results never worked out a result more improbable. I lay silent, and De Chaumont said, "Do you remember the night you disappeared from the Tuileries?" "I remember it." "You remember we determined not to let the Marquis de Ferrier see Napoleon. When you went down the corridor with Eagle I thought you were luring him. But she told us afterward you were threatened with arrest, and she helped you out of the Tuileries by a private stairway." "Did it make any stir in the palace?" "No. I saw one man hurrying past us. But nobody heard of the arrest except Eagle." "How did she get out?" "Out of what?" "The queen's closet." "She was in the garden. She said she went down the private stairway to avoid the gendarme. She must have done it cleverly, for she came in on the arm of Junot and the matter was not noticed. There stood my emergency facing me again. You had deserted. What made you imagine you were threatened with arrest?" "Because a gendarme in court dress laid his hand on my shoulder and told me I was to come with him." "Well, you may have drawn the secret police upon you. You had been cutting a pretty figure. It was probably wise to drop between walls and get out of France. Do you know why you were arrested?" "I think the groundless charge would have been an attack upon Napoleon." "You never attacked the emperor!" "No. But I had every reason to believe such a charge would be sworn against me if I ever came to trial." "Perhaps that silly dauphin story leaked out in Paris. The emperor does hate a Bourbon. But I thought you had tricked me. And the old marquis never took his eyes off the main issue. He gave Eagle his arm, and was ready to go in and thank the emperor." "You had to tell him?" "I had to tell him." "What did he say?"