was
the gabble of excited voices. Then came yell after yell from a little
distance farther away from the settlement, and from the excited
questioning which seemed to follow, I knew that a number of the Indians
had returned to the camp to talk hurriedly to those beneath the tree.

Then there were a couple of yells given in a peculiar tone, and a faint
series of sounds reached us, suggesting to me that the whole party had
spread out, and were quickly and cautiously creeping along through the
forest from the edge of the stream for some distance in, and then all
was still.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

A pair of warm lips at my ear made me start again.

"Dey all 'tupid, dem Injum. I know dey nebber tink we get up tree.
Think we run home. All gone. Come down."

"No, no; it is not safe," I whispered.

"Yes; all gone dat way. We go oder."

He was already descending almost as rapidly as a monkey, and I followed
as fast as I could, fully expecting to be seized; but all was silent,
and the fire had sunk quite low as we bent down and crept along by the
edge of the opening, and directly after were well in the shelter and
darkness of the trees, with the fire behind only making its presence
known by a dull glow.

"Where are you going?" I whispered at last.

"Get away from Injum. Come!"

He said this shortly, and I began thinking that it was our wisest course
to get right away, and, as soon as we could find a spot at daybreak,
cross to the other side, and then try to thread our way back home. But
a curiously dull, deadening feeling came over me, as I felt that the
Indians must now get there first, and that we should be too late to give
the alarm.

I was just thinking this when Pomp stopped short.

"Mass' George take off um shoes," he whispered. "Carry um. Injum no
see footmarks a-morrow."

I hurriedly did as he suggested, for there was wisdom in what he said,
and I hoped that the print of my stockinged feet, if our trail was found
and followed, might pass for the impressions made by moccasins.

I did not know much then about such matters, but still I had heard a
good deal of talk about the skill of the Indians in tracking, and
naturally felt nervous as I immediately began magnifying their powers,
and fancied that as soon as it was day they would take up our trail like
a pack of hounds, and follow it step by step, first my clumsy
shoe-prints, then Pomp's bare feet, with the great toe spreading wide
out from t