ad transpired within the space of a
few minutes, and when the men approached to lift the prostrate Indian
they found him so recovered from his exhaustion as to be able to stand,
and walk feebly with the aid of some support.

Major Hester's first duty, after conveying his wife and child to the
shelter of the blockhouse, was to visit the guest so strangely thrust
upon his hospitality and inquire into his condition. He found him
lying on a pallet of straw, over which a blanket had been thrown, and
conversing with Truman Flagg in an Indian tongue unknown to the
proprietor. The hunter was bathing the stranger's wounds with a
gentleness that seemed out of keeping with his own rude aspect, and
administering occasional draughts of cool well water, that appeared to
revive the sufferer as though it were the very elixir of life.

"What do you make of the case?" asked the major, as he watched Truman
Flagg apply to each of the many gashes in the Indian's body a healing
salve made of bear's grease mixed with the fragrant resin of the balsam
fir. "Will he pull through, think you?"

"Bless you, yes, major! He'll pull through all right; for, bad as his
hurts look, none of em's dangerous. They warn't meant to be. He was
nighest dead from thirst. You see, he's been under torture most of the
day, without nary a drop to wash down his last meal, which war a chunk
of salted meat give to him yesterday evening. He'll pick up fast
enough now, though. All he needs to make him as good as new is food
and drink, and a night's rest. After that you'll find him ready to go
on the war-path again, ef so be he's called to do it. He's the
pluckiest Injun ever I see, and I've trailed, fust and last, most of
the kinds there is. Ef he warn't, I wouldn't be fussin' over him now,
for his tribe is mostly pizen. But true grit's true grit, whether you
find it in white or red, and a man what values hisself as a man, is
bound to appreciate it whenever its trail crosses his'n."

"A sentiment in which I must heartily concur," assented the major. "A
brave enemy is always preferable to a cowardly friend. But is this
Indian an enemy? To what tribe does he belong?"

"Ottaway," was the laconic answer.

"Ottawa!" exclaimed the major, greatly disconcerted. "Why, the Ottawas
are the firmest allies of France and the most inveterate enemies of the
English. Are you certain he is an Ottawa?"

"Sartain," replied the hunter, with a silent laugh at the other