mself and those who would soon be on his trail, if, indeed,
the pursuit were not already begun. So he set off at a brisk pace,
still keeping the general southerly direction on which he had
determined until he should reach the lake. He had not walked more than
two hours, and was staying his stomach with a handful of parched corn
brought from the Indian camp, when, all at once, he found himself amid
the remains of recent camp-fires on ground that was much trampled. It
was the very scene of his capture by the Wyandots and of his narrow
escape from death. Yes, there was the identical tree to which he had
been bound. Turning, with a shudder, he hastened from the place of
such horrid memories, and instinctively retraced his course of two
nights before across the narrow neck of land that had proved fatal to
so many of his countrymen, and on which the dear sister whom he now
sought had last been seen.

Reaching the eastern side of the point, and skirting the shore for a
short distance, he came upon another place of camping, which he
instantly recognized as the spot where he had left Paymaster Bullen.

"Poor old Bullen!" he reflected half aloud. "I wonder what he thought
of my deserting him the way I did; and I also wonder what became of
him. I suppose he must be dead long before this, and 'Tummas,' too,
poor fellow; for I didn't see anything of them among the prisoners
yesterday. I never trusted those Senecas; but Wilkins was so cocksure
of them that he wouldn't listen to a word against them. Wonder what
he'll say now. I wouldn't be here at this moment, though, if it hadn't
been for that fellow, 'Zebra,' as Bullen called him. Queer how things
turn out in this funny old world! I only wish I knew just what that
tattooing on my arm means, and what the Metai is, anyway. If I did, I
might turn the knowledge to advantage. Hello! Something has been
carried into those bushes,--the paymaster's tub for a guinea."

During his soliloquy the young woodsman's trained eye rested on a
broken twig and a bit of bruised bark at the edge of a near-by thicket.
Stepping to the place and parting the bushes, he uttered a cry of joy.
There, bottom-side up, and imperfectly concealed, as though in great
haste, lay the canoe in which he had so recently journeyed. Beneath it
he found a rifle that had belonged to the paymaster, as well as most of
his luggage, which included a good supply of ammunition, provisions,
and cooking-utensils. In