"But why should they be around here at all, when they know the hostility of the English settlers toward the French?" asked Sandy. "It is always war between them, and especially in the wilderness where the trap lines run. Each claims all the country between here and the Mississippi; together with all the fur-bearing animals that can be found there. And that dispute will never be settled without a bloody war." "Perhaps they meant to either try and rob some of the settlers here, or else set fire to our home," Bob ventured to say. "The coming of the flood changed their plans; and, as the people were all aroused, they must have decided that it was too dangerous for them to stay around here. And so, at the time they were seen, Jacques and Henri may have been scuttling out." "How is it at the cabin?" asked Sandy, with a tremor in his voice; for, truth to tell, he felt the impending catastrophe even more than his brother did, and could not bear to look upon what seemed to be the doom of their home. "I'm sorry to say the water seems still to be rising, and we must not allow ourselves to cling to much hope that it can be saved," was Bob's reply. "I feel more for mother and Kate than the rest of us. They sit there among our goods, white of face, but trying to bear up. Father cheers them with a few words every now and then; but they know he only talks that way because he cannot bear to see them so miserable, and not that he really believes the flood is at a standstill." "Poor father and mother, they have had so many things to bear with," said Sandy. "We must try to look cheerful, just for their sakes. And besides, you know, at the worst it may mean a change of base for us, Bob." "I know what you are thinking of, Sandy," the other remarked, with a shake of his head. "That Mississippi idea will not let go of you." "But others are really talking about it right now, Bob, I tell you," Sandy insisted, earnestly. "You would be surprised to know how many heads of families are thinking that it would be a splendid undertaking to leave this country, where misfortune has overtaken them, and go further into the golden west. There was Mr. Harness for one, Mr. Bancroft for another, and possibly Mr. Wayne. Something seems to tell me, brother, that the coming of this flood, terrible though it appears, will be the very means of making our father decide to go upon this undertaking. Oh! I hope so! I hope so! I surely know that it would be for the best; and that we could have a homestead in that beautiful wilderness out yonder, that would far exceed anything ever known along the Ohio, with its floods and troublesome Indians." "When father makes his mind up, then will be the time for the rest of us to say what we think," Bob observed. "But we must wait and see. Perhaps, when the waters go down again, our neighbors will forget what they said this night, and think it best to rebuild, if their homes have been swept away."