The afternoon was half spent, and the sun well on his journey toward the horizon that Sandy so often viewed with yearning, because it held so much of mystery that appealed to his adventurous nature. Kate had drawn the dugout up on the sandy beach, and, landing, strolled into the edge of the great woods. She had promised her mother never to go out of hearing of the busy axes; and even now she could catch their steady fall, as the men hewed the logs they had secured from the fallen trees and adapted them for the walls of their cabin homes. In a short time the girl had her arms filled with the most beautiful flowers she could remember ever having come across. Each new treasure excited her afresh, and she almost forgot her promise not to wander too deeply into the forest, where there was always a chance that some savage wildcat might be lurking. Kate had just turned around, meaning to head back toward her boat again, which could just be seen through the forest aisles, when she thought she heard a stick snap. Turning around with a half-laugh, under the impression that it might be her two brothers stealing up with the intention of surprising her, the poor girl was amazed and horrified to see a rough man, whom she immediately knew must be a French trapper, standing within five feet of her. Before she could think of screaming a second man arose from the bushes, and clapped a hand over her mouth. CHAPTER XXV THE PERIL OF KATE "WHAT have we here, Henri?" exclaimed the man Kate had seen. She was struggling in the rude grasp of the other fellow, but was like a baby in the clutch of his powerful hands. "I am surprised, Jacques, at what I have here," was the reply, in French. "This girl, she surely must be the same we know lives in the cabin, up on the Ohio, belonging to our enemy, Armstrong. Yes, I am not mistaken. But what brings her down in this country of the Mississippi?" Evidently both French trappers were astounded to see Kate there. Many hundreds of miles stood between the little settlement far up the Ohio and this region; and in those primitive days this represented an almost insurmountable obstacle. "Look again and make sure, Henri," said the other fellow, himself striding forward to leer into the face of the terrified girl, who by now understood that these men were the rascals who had given them so much trouble, trying to injure both Sandy and Bob, and finally robbing their cabin home when it was in the grip of the flood. Why, one of them was even then wearing the wonderful wampum belt which Pontiac himself had bestowed upon the boys as an emblem of his friendship, and as a protection to their home against the savage fury of any Indians who belonged to the great confederation of which he was the leader. "Well, what do you say now, Jacques?" demanded the first trapper, with a chuckle.