med into their hut they saw who we were. A few words served
to calm them, and make them understand what had happened, and in another
minute Rose came running up, unable to restrain her anxiety, she having
heard the firing, and fearing that we might be killed or wounded.

"We must not let Dio be carried off if we can help it!" I exclaimed.
"Come on, Mr Tidey; let us pursue the fellows, and perhaps they'll grow
tired of dragging him along, and set him at liberty."

"Yes, yes, Massa Tidey, you go 'long, me take care ob de little girls.
See dar' is rifle, me fight for dem if anybody comes!" exclaimed Rose.

Sure enough one of the men in his terror had left his rifle behind him.
We should thus find only three armed antagonists, unless he had also
pistols. At all events, without stopping to consider the risk we ran,
we rushed on, again and again uttering a war-whoop. It had only the
effect, as far as we could judge, of expediting the movements of the
fugitives. Unfortunately the moon became obscured by clouds, and
increased the difficulties of our progress.

I began indeed to fear that, after all, we should be baffled, and I knew
the sad fate which awaited Dio, should he be carried back to his former
master. We had two prisoners, to be sure, but I felt very certain that
Mr Bracher would not give up his slave for the sake of recovering them,
indeed he would be well aware that we could not keep them in captivity.
Several times I thought we were on the point of overtaking the men, but
on each occasion they managed to elude us. Whether they still fancied
that Indians were following them, we could not tell. Possibly they
might have guessed that we were white men, though they could not tell
the number of our party, and at all events did not think it worth while
to hazard a conflict, now that they had obtained the object of their
expedition. How far off Silas Bracher's train was encamped we were
uncertain, but we knew that the men could not possibly reach it, if it
was on the usual route, until some hours after noon, indeed they could
not get out of the wood bordering the lake, until daylight.

"Can you go on, Mike?" asked Mr Tidey.

"I will until I drop, and I don't feel at all inclined to do that just
yet," I answered.

"Then let us continue the pursuit, but we'll not whoop again, so that we
may possibly come upon them when they least expect it."

The forest was tolerably open, and had it been daylight, we should h