“Perhaps _you_ can do something. We start, in about a fortnight, on the fall hunt,--both the Elwoods, myself, and others. When we are gone, you can go down into that neighborhood, get acquainted with some of the women, and get them to call with you on Mrs. Elwood; and, if Avis could be made to go and see her, so much the better. She would make an impression without trying. You would have to manage, but how, I am not now prepared to decide. I will think of it, and you may, and we will talk it over again. I have told you this, now, that you might understand the situation of affairs; and the object, which you will now see, is worth playing for. And, if we can carry this last point, the last danger will be removed,--unless Claud himself proves fickle.” “I guess there will not be much danger of that in _this_ settlement. What girl is there that he could think of in comparison with Avis?” “I think there is none; and still, there is one whom I would rather he would not see.” “Who can that be, I should like to know?” “She is the daughter, or is claimed to be, of an old Indian thief, called Wenongonet, who lives up the lakes, and was once a man of some consequence, both with Indians and whites.” “An Indian girl! Fudge!” “You might alter that tune, if you should see her. She is white as you are, and has, most of the time, of late years, lived in some of the old settlements, been schooled, and so on. I saw her, soon after we came here, with another woman, at the south end of the lake, where she was visiting in the family of one of the settlers, and I inquired her out, as she appeared so much above the common run of girls. But she is courted, they say, by a young educated Indian, called Tomah, from Connecticut-river way, where I used to see him. He _ought_ to be able to take care of her. But hark! what was that? It sounded like the trotting of some heavy horse. I’ll see.” So saying, Gaut rose and went to the window, when, after casting a searching look out into the road, and pausing a moment, in evident doubt and surprise at what met his gaze, he muttered: “The devil is always at hand when you are talking about him; for that must be the very fellow,--Tomah himself! But what a rig-out! Wife, look here.” The woman promptly came to the window, when her eyes were greeted with the appearance of a smart-looking and jauntily-equipped young Indian, mounted on the back of a stately, antlered moose, that, by some contrivance answering to a bridle, he was about bringing to a stand in the road, opposite to the house. Without heeding the exclamations of surprise and questions of his wife, who had never seen an animal of the kind, Gaut stepped out of the door, and, after pausing long enough to satisfy himself that he was not known to the other, said, after the distant greeting customary among strangers had been exchanged: “That is a strange horse you are travelling on, friend.”