Ben's hand went up quick enough. The gunners ceased firing and M. Radisson sheathed his sword with a laugh.
"You'll not take the odds? Take advice instead! Take a man's advice, and never waste powder! You'll need it all if he's king who conquers! Besides," he added, turning suddenly serious, "if my forces learn you are here I'll not promise I've strength to restrain them!"
"Plenty to spare! Now, if you are afraid of the Hudson's Bay Company ships attacking you, I'd be glad to loan you enough young fire-eaters to garrison the fort here!"
"Thanks," says Ben, twirling his mustaches till they were nigh jerked out, "but how long would they stay?"
"Till you sent them away," says M. de Radisson, with the lights at play under his brows.
"Hang me if I know how long that would be," laughed Gillam, half-puzzled, half-pleased with the Frenchman's darting wits.
"Ben," begins M. Radisson, tapping the lace ruffle of Gillam's sleeve, "you must not fire those guns!"
"My officers are swashing young blades! What with the marines and the common soldiers and my own guard, 'tis all I can manage to keep the rascals in hand! They must not know you are here!"
Gillam muttered something of a treaty of truce for the winter.
"I have scarce the support to do as I will," he protests.
Young Gillam swore such coolness was scurvy treatment for an old friend.
"Old friend," laughed Radisson afterward. "Did the cub's hangdog of a father not offer a thousand pounds for my head on the end of a pikestaff?"
"The season is too far advanced for you to _escape_," says he with soft emphasis.
"'Tis why I want a treaty," answers the sailor.
"Come, then," laughs the Frenchman, "now--as to terms----"
"If you don't wish to be discovered don't run up a flag!"
"If you don't wish to be discovered, don't let your people leave the island!"
"What?" asks M. Radisson, glancing sharply at me; for we were both thinking of that night attack.
"They haven't left the island," repeats Gillam.
"Ten lies are as cheap as two," says Radisson to us. Then to Gillam, "Don't let your people leave the island, or they'll meet my forces."
"If you don't wish the Fur Company to discover you, don't fire guns!"
"That is to keep 'em from connecting with those inlanders," whispered Godefroy, who knew the plays of his master's game better than I. "We can beat 'em single; but if Ben joins the inlanders and the Fur Company against us----"