The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1906-03-16
CHAPTER XVIII.

uCdl. -
CHAPTER XVIII.
DEALS MAINLY WITH A GAME OF
CHANCE IN WHICH FRONTENAC
SHUFFLES THE CARDS.
Tonti was welcomed by Frontenac
with great rejoicing. The many tales
of death and disaster, industriously'
circulated by La Sales enemies, had
the comics mind, and he had come to
fear lest, after all, they might be true,
and he had lost both friend and fu-
ture fortune.
Accordingly after dinner, the night
Of Tonti's arrival, they drew near the
table, on which was laid the only map
that Frontenac possessed of the west
ern wilds. Having spread this out
carefully before him, he turned to
Tonti, saying:
"Come, mon ami, to your narrative!
I am consumed to know each step OF
your perilous Journey"
Then did Tonti commence and re-
late in full all that had happened to
the hapless party in its wanderings,
pointing out from time to time on the
map the course of their progress.
Frontenac interrupted him often with
eager questionings, with EXPLANATIONS
Of rage and alarm at moments of peril,
and with chucklcs of delight and roars
of giant laughter as he learned how
difficulties had been overcome or enc
mics duped.
"Parbleu!" he exclaimed. "a worthy
blow! And with your iron fist. A
Mohegan chief?"
Eyes, beset in the street at Montreal
by a half score drunken Iroquois as
La Sale and 1 passed by. They went
too far in their ~tormentings and tried
to cut his ear with a hunting knife.
l could not stand it and went to his
aid. They fed, splitting out broken
teeth as. they ran, leaving the Mohe-
gan brave with us. He begged permits
sion to accompany US. It is, he,
Akiesko by name. who, with Pompon,
has brayed the dangers of u return
to Quebec"
THAT droll pompon! His wit and
cunning must have helped you many
times"
"Certainement! Had it not been for
him we should never have returned.
His quick eye It was that saw some
thing was amiss on Christmas eve, as
we sailed from Fort Frontenac across
the lake, and perceived the rocks the
treacherous pilot, bought with Duchess
neau's gold. was driving us straight
upon. He It was who, following La
Salle's tracks in the snow, found him
gazing at the great falls with the as.
sassin creeping close behind him. and
who fired the shot that pierced the
brain Of the wretch and sent him
tumbling into the abyss as he was
about to strike our leader his death.
blow. He 1t was. too, when on the
banks of the river of the Illini Lis
Sale informed us that one must re-
main and hold the fort with the
men, while the other two must force
their way back TO Quebec for aid, that
volunteered to accompany me. I car
also witness to his cunning when, oul
journey eastward half completed, w
were caught by the Hurons and would
have persisted miserably, both he ant
I and Akiesko, had he not had tn,
lucky thought of feigning madness ant
leading the whole tribe a merry dance
about the village. affording us an op
portunity to escape. Ma fol! at TIMES
I believe he holds something mdr'
than brains within his head; methinkI
he has q devil! He also anointed ht
face that night with phosphorus past
so that when the savages followet
him into the woods he turned upoI
them. his features all aglow IN tn
dark, and they fed, giving him time t
rejoin us. Then. too. the contents 0
hir leather pouch afforded an anti
dose to the poison La Sale had eater
with his food, placed there by anothel
OF the intendant's accursed agent
amOuk cur men,