Annette - The Metis Spy
Page 38"My braves will turn back," shouted Big Bear, "and when we get to
the lodges we will hold a council. The little Cree brave and his dumb
brother will come to o tents."
"Nay, brave chief," replied Annette, "my mother is on the way
hither, and I must return and see that she is safe from harm." And
despite the beseeching eyes of the chief's prettiest wife, the daring
spy turned her horse and rode away followed by her dumb brother.
"Now Julie, we must see how it fares with the boat," and the two
horses went at a long, swinging gallop down the banks of Saskatchewan.
With the boat all was right, and in her clear, bird-like voice,
Annette informed the fugitives that Big Bear and his braves had
"What turned then back?" enquired the same low, musical voice.
Annette hesitated, for she was not a girl that boasted of her
achievements. There are enough of maids white and brown, of lesser
character, to do that sort of thing.
"I told a story; I said that a great body of soldiers were close at
hand."
"Brava, brava," and the girl heard many words of warm commendation
spoken in the boat. Then letting her luminous eyes linger for a
moment with a tender longing upon the barge, she raised her voice,
saying, "Bon voyage Messieurs," and was off through the dark like a swallow.
unoffending settlers, began to set the blood shivering in the veins
of persons throughout the continent; and one horrible circumstance,
bearing upon the story, I shall relate. At the distant settlement of
Frog Lake, at the commencement of the tumult, when night came down,
Indians, smeared in hideous, raw, earthy-smelling paint, would creep
about among the dwellings, and peer, with eyes gleaming with hate,
through the window-panes at the innocent and unsuspecting inmates. At
last one chief, with a diabolical face, said, "Brothers, we must be avenged upon every white man and woman here.
We will shoot them like dogs." The answer to this harangue was the
clanking of barbaric instruments of music, the brandishing of
among the Bois-Brules squatting about, and revealed their plans; but
some of these people shrank with fear from the proposal. Others,
however, said, "We shall join you." So the plan was arranged, and it was not very
long before it was carried out. And now runners were everywhere on
the plains, telling that Marton had a mighty army made up of most of
the brave Indians of the prairies, and comprising all the dead shots
among the half-breeds; that he had encountered heavy forces of police
and armed civilians, and overthrown them without losing a single man.