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 tion which the Germans had drawn from then* prisoner.

"Is the channel buoyed?" asked the lieutenant at length.

Laroque was at a loss how to answer, for the Germans were sure to find the buoys when the fog lifted, unless a scheme which had been forming in his mind should somehow work out, a forlorn hope, to be sure, and dependent on the fog hanging a day or two longer.

"Sometam few buoy'; but de channel shif ev'ry year, and de buoy' no good den. I don' know eef dey tak' buoy' up dees year," he finally answered.

"Oh, I guess you will remember the river well enough to take small-draft boats up to the fort." The captain winked at the others and laughed loudly. And the Cree's quick brain caught the meaning only too well. They would put him at the wheel of a launch, with a gun at his head to refresh his memory of that shifting Albany channel. Well, a man could die but once. He would beach the launch somewhere below the fort and take his medicine, but he'd carry one or two of these yellow-haired fur-thieves with him when he went. There was a chance that they might be seen through the factor's glasses and the warning not come too late if the post Crees could get at the boat and wipe out the crew. But if the launch should get back to the ship with the information that there were no signs of guns at the unfortified post, they would probably attack at once with the whole ship's crew.