ll him. Oliver felt himself every
instant becoming more and more interested; he could not help thinking,
as he watched her varying countenance, that she must be of his own race.
Perhaps her name would assist him to discover the truth. He asked,
looking up in her face, what she was called. "Manita," she answered,
"does it sound pleasant in your ears?"

"Very pleasant indeed," he replied, repeating it, "I shall remember it
as long as I live."

The old chief received the adventurers in a friendly manner, and to
prove his good intentions, said that he would direct his people to build
wigwams for them on any spot they might choose. Roger replied that as
he and his people were fond of water, they should prefer encamping on
the bank of the river, where the rivulet ran into it; his true motive
being that they should thus have only two sides to defend should they by
any chance be attacked; while they might also, by building rafts,
descend the stream into the main river and thus regain their ship.

The whole of the population at once set to work to supply the wants of
the white strangers, the men even being condescending enough to assist,
though the women were chiefly employed in bringing the materials for the
huts and putting them up. The Englishmen, however, as soon as they saw
their mode of proceeding, greatly lightened their labours. The rest of
the men went out hunting, and before evening returned with a plentiful
supply of game. In a wonderfully short time a village had sprung up,
affording ample accommodation in fine summer weather.

After the Indians had left them, the young girl came fearlessly into
their midst, bringing the fish she had caught as her present to Oliver
and the two officers, for she at once distinguished them from the rest
of the men. She had then a further talk with Oliver; she inquired
whether he would be willing to accompany her in her canoe up the stream,
and as they would have a long way to go, he must assist in paddling, but
no one else must accompany them, nor must the Indians or his own friends
know where they had gone. There might be some danger, she confessed,
though it was not such as to make her hesitate if she could serve her
new friends.

Oliver, who liked the notion of the danger, replied that he would
willingly go.

She advised him to sleep soundly and to be awake two hours before dawn,
when he would find her with the canoe at the mouth of the stream,
beneath a high bank, f