White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1931-06-11
CHAPTER XIV-Continued

In this way JeemS found his wife
and boy. Their story was destined
to be remembered because 1t was a
marked incident in transition Of
land, people, and customs which his
tory could not regard too lightly.
Manuscripts and letters were to bear
1t on, until, almost forgotten, it was to
remain only whisper among thou
sand others of days and years whose
The walls Of the old Lotbiniere home
in st. Louis street, close to the resi-
dence of the beautiful but infamous
Madame de Paean, witnessed the piec-
ing together of the story and might
repeat 1t today If they could talk.
For Jeems the few minutes after his
entry in the Lotbiniere house, where
he and Toinette were guided by Nancy
and her father while black servant
brought up the rear with the baby,
were nearly as unreal as the last mo-
ments of his consciousness on the
Plains Of Abraham. Inside the door,
Nancy placed the child in his arms,
which had not relinquished their hold
of Toinette, and the discovery that he
possessed a son leapt upon him. He
was so overwhelmed by the emotion
which followed that he did not see
Hepsibah Adams as he felt his way
through the wide hall to find what the
excitement and crying were about. 1t
hoh with cf-
less face and his voice breaking with
joy when he found Jeems alive under
his great, fumbling hands which added
as Nancy wrote in her letter to Anne
st. Denis Rock-"a final proof that
God does answer prayer"
That this God who had seen New
France sink into ruin had guided their
own destinies with benefcient hand
Jeems devoutly believed when Toi-
nette told him what had befallen her
after the flight from Chenufsio. They
were alone in her room. 1t was the
eleventh Of December, and the after
noon sun shone from sky filled with
the smiling warmth Of autumn rather
than the chill Of winter. A few hun
dred yards away, General Murray was
holding review of the regiments
which were soon to face Lewis in his
attempt to retake the city. The sound
OF martial music came to them family.
and with 1t the distinct but softer
tolling OF bell which marked an hour
OF prayer, and to this appeal Toinette
bowed her head and murmured words
of alteration taught her by the white
robed Sisterhood of Christ. Three
years had changed her. Not time
alone, but motherhood and the grief of
hopeless waiting had made her more
woman and less a girl. At last she
had believed Jeems was dead, and now
she had him again, an Understandable
beauty suffused her face and eyes with
its radiance as the mystery of the
years was unveiled.
She told OF Hepsibah's capture by
the Mohawks in Forbidden valley of
his escape, his recapture later by the
Senecas, and Of her appeals to Shin
das and Tiaoga and of her failure to
inspire their mercy when, blinded, he
was brought to Chenufsio.
"Only God could have directed me
after that" she said, ''for l was so
desperate that scarcely know how
events shaped themselves as they did.
I feared what your action might be
when you returned and found your
uncle had been blinded and killed, and
not until entered All De Bah's tepee
did 1t strike me as an answer to nv
prayers that hunting knife should
be dangling by it's cord in the open.
ing. With this knife I freed Hepsibah
and cut hole in the skin tent through
which we crept to the canoes, after I
had given Wood Pigeon my message
to you. When we were pursued and
overtaken my hope died, but the depth
of my despair was no greater than the
joyous shock which overcame me when
l heard TiaOga's voice telling us not
to be afraid but to go ashore quietly
and that no harm would befall us.
Shindas explained what they were
about to do, for as soon as we were
ashore, Tiaoga went off alone into the
darkness. He told us that three days
before reaching Chenufsio they had
learned, through facts which Hepsi-
bah related, that their prisoner, al
ready blinded, was your uncle and my
own dear friend. 1t was too late for
them to save him, for the warriors
were in bad humor and demanded the
sacrifice at the stake of the one who
had killed several of their number.
Shindas came ahead so you would not
be in the village when the prisoner
arrived. AS Shindas talked to US
learned that hearts as kind as any In
this world beat in savage breasts, for
these three men had turned traitors to
the Senecas that we might live. In
the light of torch, Shindas disclosed
q long braid of hair which looked hor-
ridly like my own, and drenched its
scalp in fresh blood which he drew
from his breast. 1t was a scalp
Tiaoga had taken from French In
dian he had killed, and l turned faint