The Masters of the Peaks A Story of the Great North Woods
FOREWORD "The Masters of the Peaks," while presenting a complete story in itself is the fourth volume of the French and Indian War Series, of which the predecessors were "The Hunters of the Hills," "The Shadow of the North," and "The Rulers of the Lakes." Robert Lennox, Tayoga, Willet, and all the other important characters of the earlier romances reappear in the present book. CHARACTERS IN THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR SERIES ROBERT LENNOX: A lad of unknown origin TAYOGA A young Onondaga warrior DAVID WILLET A hunter
ADIEU
CHAPTER I
AN OLD MONASTERY
"Come, deputy of the Centre, forward! Quick step! march! if we want to
be in time to dine with the others. Jump, marquis! there, that's
right! why, you can skip across a stubble-field like a deer!"
These words were said by a huntsman peacefully seated at the edge of
the forest of Ile-Adam, who was finishing an Havana cigar while
waiting for his companion, who had lost his way in the tangled
underbrush of the wood. At his side four panting dogs were watching,
as he did, the personage he addressed. To understand how sarcastic
were these exhortations, repeated at intervals, we should state that
the approaching huntsman was a stout little man whose protuberant
stomach was the evidence of a truly ministerial "embonpoint." He was
struggling painfully across the furrows of a vast wheat-field recently
harvested, the stubble of which considerably impeded him; while to add
to his other miseries the sun's rays, striking obliquely on his face,
collected an abundance of drops of perspiration. Absorbed in the
FOREWORD "The Masters of the Peaks," while presenting a complete story in itself is the fourth volume of the French and Indian War Series, of which the predecessors were "The Hunters of the Hills," "The Shadow of the North," and "The Rulers of the Lakes." Robert Lennox, Tayoga, Willet, and all the other important characters of the earlier romances reappear in the present book. CHARACTERS IN THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR SERIES ROBERT LENNOX: A lad of unknown origin TAYOGA A young Onondaga warrior DAVID WILLET A hunter