These might reveal something; for the feet of the Indians and Esquimaux, as well as their boots, are totally different from each other. But what chiefly struck Lieutenant Hobson was the strange arrangement of these impressions. They were evidently made by a human foot, a shod foot; but, strange to say, the ball alone appeared to have touched the ground! The marks were very numerous, close together, often crossing one another, but confined to a very small circle. Jaspar Hobson called the attention of the rest of the party to this singular circumstance. “These were not made by a person walking,” he said. “Nor by a person jumping,” added Mrs Barnett; “for there is no mark of a heel.” “No,” said Mrs Joliffe; “these footprints were left by a dancer.” She was right, as further examination proved. They were the marks left by a dancer, and a dancer engaged in some light and graceful exercise, for they were neither clumsy nor deep. But who could the light-hearted individual be who had been impelled to dance in this sprightly fashion some degrees above the Arctic Circle? “It was certainly not an Esquimaux,” said the Lieutenant. “Nor an Indian,” cried Corporal Joliffe. “No, it was a Frenchman,” said Sergeant Long quietly. And all agreed that none but a Frenchman could have been capable of dancing on such a spot. CHAPTER XII. THE MIDNIGHT SUN. Sergeant Long’s assertion must appear to have been founded on insufficient evidence. That there had been dancing no one could deny, but that the dancer was a Frenchman, however probable, could not be considered proved. However, the Lieutenant shared the opinion of his subordinate, which did not appear too positive to any of the party, who all agreed in feeling sure that some travellers, with at least one compatriot of Vestris amongst them, had recently encamped on this spot. Of course Lieutenant Hobson was by no means pleased at this he was afraid of having been preceded by rivals in the north-western districts of English America; and secret as the Company had kept its scheme, it had doubtless been divulged in the commercial centres of Canada and the United States. The Lieutenant resumed his interrupted march; but he was full of care and anxiety, although he would not now have dreamed of retracing his steps. “Frenchmen are then sometimes met with in these high latitudes?” was Mrs Barnett’s natural question after this incident. “Yes, madam,” replied the Lieutenant; “or if not exactly Frenchmen, the descendants of the masters of Canada when it belonged to France, which comes to much the same thing. These men are in fact our most formidable rivals.” “But I thought,” resumed Mrs Barnett, “that after the absorption by the Hudson’s Bay Company of the old North-West Company, that it had no longer any rivals on the American continent.”