ise. It was their intention to keep the same Indian trail
back they had gone over in returning home, trusting to memory to keep
them from straying. When their journey was two-thirds accomplished the
Indians had come unawares upon them and after fighting as long as they
could hold out, all were killed but these two, who were made prisoners
with all their baggage. "It was a struggle for life, and two days we
kept them at bay," said Jones, "but we were one after another picked
off until but five of us were left, when the savages maddened by the
sight of their killed and wounded which must have been in great
numbers, closed around us and we fought hand to hand for a few minutes,
when Cole and myself were overpowered, disarmed and captured, the rest
were killed, scalped, and their dead bodies left on the ground unburied
to become a prey to beasts scarcely more savage than the Indians. Our
fate was decided on in council the same evening we were taken to the
village. We were sentenced to run the gauntlet.[13] If we survived we
were to become part of the tribe to supply the places of the lost
warriors; if we fell, the stake awaited us. We looked upon ourselves as
doomed, when an old Indian came to us, and displacing the thongs with
which we were bound, bade us follow him. The rest you know, and we are
here together."

[13] The gauntlet consists in drawing up the members of the
village in two files facing each other four feet apart, through
which the victim has to make his way, the Indians striking at him
as he runs with clubs, knives, tomahawks or any weapon they
choose to arm themselves with. Not one out of a hundred get
through the file, and if they do they are sure to meet with
kindness; but if beaten down they are either killed on the spot
or carried wounded and bleeding to the stake where they perish
amidst horrible tortures.

"For which I am really grateful," said the trapper, who informed them
of the principal events of their wandering for the last year and
a-half. They listened with great interest until the recital was
finished, and then Jones said, musingly, "It must be that you are the
same of whom we heard so much, more than a year ago, although your
friends believed you had perished by the cruel hands of the Indians."

"Then you have seen them! Are they well? Have they removed from the
encampment by the brook?" and numberless other questions were showered
in a