He was, however, so in the habit of fighting windmills and making mountains of molehills that he could not at first glance see any sudden presentment with a normal vision.

He had no love for Englishmen and he did like Americans, but he naturally thought that Helm's talk of fighting Hamilton was, as his own would have been in a like case, talk and nothing more.

The fort could not hold out an hour, he well knew.

Then what?
Ah, he but too well realized the result.
Resistance would inflame the English soldiers and madden the Indians.
There would be a massacre, and the belts of savages would sag with bloody scalps.

He shrugged his shoulders and felt a chill creep up his back.
The first thing M.Roussillon did was to see Father Beret and take counsel of him; then he hurried home to dig a great pit under his kitchen floor in which he buried many bales of fur and all his most valuable things.