"It is enough to startle the life out of one!" "It is our way of saying good-by, M'seur," replied Croisset with a fierce snap of his whip.

"Hoo-la, get along there!" he cried to the dogs, and in half a dozen breaths the fire was lost to view.
Dawn comes at about eight o'clock in the northern mid-winter; beyond the fiftieth degree the first ruddy haze of the sun begins to warm the southeastern skies at nine, and its glow had already risen above the forests before Croisset stopped his team again.

For two hours he had not spoken a word to his prisoner and after several unavailing efforts to break the other's taciturnity Howland lapsed into a silence of his own.
When he had brought his tired dogs to a halt, Croisset spoke for the first time.
"We are going to camp here for a few hours," he explained.

"If you will pledge me your word of honor that you will make no attempt to escape I will give you the use of your legs until after breakfast, M'seur.

What do you say ?" "Have you a Bible, Croisset ?" "No, M'seur, but I have the cross of our Virgin, given to me by the missioner at York Factory." "Then I will swear by it--I will swear by all the crosses and all the Bibles in the world that I will make no effort to escape.