ime to
lose."

So saying, I snatched my hand from her and sprang forward; she following
me as fast as she could, more fearful, evidently, of my making my escape
from her than of her own escape from the Indians. As soon as I was a
hundred yards in the wood, I turned short to the right, and fled with
all my speed in that direction, because I hoped by this means to deceive
the Indians, and it was easier to run where the wood was not so thick.
My mistress followed me close; she would have hallooed to me, but she
had not breath after the first half-mile. I found out that I was more
fleet than she was. Whether encumbered with her clothes, or perhaps not
so much used to exercise, I heard her panting after me. I could easily
have left her, but my fear was that she would have called to me, and if
she had, the Indians would have heard her, and have known the direction
I had taken, and, when once on my trail, they would, as soon as daylight
came, have followed me by it to any distance; I therefore slackened my
speed so as just to enable my mistress to keep up with me at about ten
yards' distance; when we had run about three miles I felt certain that
she could not proceed much further: speak she could not, and as I ran
without once looking behind me, she could make no sign. I continued at
a less rapid pace for about a mile further. I did this to enable her to
keep up with me, and to recover my own breath as much as possible
previous to a start. The voices of the Indians had long been out of
hearing, and it was clear that they had not discovered the direction
which we had taken. I knew, therefore, that they could not hear her now
if she did cry out as loud as she could, and I gradually increased my
speed, till I could no longer hear her panting behind me; I then went
off at my full speed, and after a few minutes I heard her voice at some
distance faintly calling out my name. "Yes," thought I, "but I have not
forgotten the ball and chain; and if you thought that you had let loose
a lion while we were in the cabin, you shall find that you have loosed a
deer in the woods." I then stopped for a few moments to recover my
breath; I did not, however, wait long; I was afraid that my mistress
might recover her breath as well as myself, and I again set off as fast
as I could. The idea of torture from the Indians, or again being kept
confined by my mistress, gave me endurance which I thought myself
incapable of. Before morning I ca