The elk was hung up out of the reach of any wild beasts that might be prowling around, and the next day Henry and Sam Barringford skinned the animal and cut up the meat as Mrs. Morris desired it. The tongue was smoked, a small part of the forequarter pickled, and the remainder kept fresh by being hung up where it was cold. That day they dined on elk steaks and all pronounced the fresh meat very acceptable. Late in the afternoon Paul Thompson came to the cabin on horseback, bringing his wife with him. "We were coming sooner," said the husband, "but my wife got a sore throat and I thought I had better wait until she was well again." "I hope it is all right now," replied Mrs. Morris, as she escorted her visitors into the cabin. "Quite well, but she mustn't expose herself too much. When I go to Dennett's I am going to get her a mixture from the doctor." The Thompsons were astonished to see the babies and wanted at once to hear all about them. "It certainly is a queer mix-up," said the man, later on. "I'll see if I can learn anything about them when I am away. Somebody ought to be able to place them,--although, to be sure, a great number of children have become hopelessly lost during the late war." "We know that," answered Mrs. Morris with a shudder. "Wasn't little Nell stolen from us by the Indians and then held by that bad French trader, Jean Bevoir?" "Didn't you say Bevoir was dead?" asked Paul Thompson. "He is," answered James Morris, "and I must confess I am rather glad of it. He caused me a great deal of trouble, in one way and another." "I have news that Fort Detroit has surrendered to us," went on Paul Thompson. "The surrender took place on November the twenty-ninth." "Is that so," cried Dave, with deep interest. "Was there any fighting?" "I don't believe there was, but the French commander was very bitter over the surrender, and so was Pontiac, the chief of the Ottawas." "Pontiac?" repeated Henry. "I don't know that I ever heard of him." "I have," put in Dave. "Somebody told me he was with the Indians that attacked General Braddock, at the opening of the war." "Yes, he was thar," came from Barringford. "An' I heard tell at thet hospital I was in up to Canada thet he was with Montcalm when the French fit General Wolfe. Montcalm give him a suit of French officer's clothes and the Injun was tickled to death over 'em." The news that Fort Detroit had surrendered to the English was true. Immediately after the fall of Montreal, as already described in detail in this series, General Amherst ordered Major Robert Rogers, of Rogers' Rangers fame, to ascend the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, and take possession of Detroit, Michillimackinac--now called Mackinaw--and other French strongholds which had not yet been turned over to the British.