“What a strange message!” I exclaimed.

“I must heed it,” she said under her breath. “The trail is open, and my hour is come.”

“But, Lois, that trail means death!”

“Your army makes it safe at last. And now the time is come when I must follow it.”

“Is that why you have followed us?”

“Yes, that is why. Until that night in the storm at Poundridge-town I had never learned where the Vale Yndaia lay. Month after month I haunted camps, asking for information concerning Yndaia and the Regiment de la Reine. But of Yndaia I learned nothing, until the Sagamore informed me that Yndaia lay near Catharines-town. And, learning you were of the army, and that the army was bound thither, I followed you.”