IT IS REINFORCED
XXXIV. AH-MO, THE DAUGHTER OF PONTIAC
XXXV. A NIGHT OF FIGHTING AND TERROR
XXXVI. BRAVE DEATH OF THE OLD MAJOR
XXXVII. THE CURSE OF THE MAGIC CIRCLE
XXXVIII. A WINTER IN THE WILDERNESS
XXXIX. AN ADOPTED DAUGHTER OF THE FOREST
XL. THE PRINCESS ANSWERS DONALD'S QUESTION

ILLUSTRATIONS

DONALD IS UNEXPECTEDLY SAVED FROM A TERRIBLE
DEATH . . . . . . _Frontispiece_

"THESE TWO PADDLED THEIR WAY AGAINST THE SWIFT CURRENT
OF THE MOHAWK"

DONALD AND HIS TWO COMPANIONS ARE PURSUED BY INDIANS

PONTIAC DISCOVERS THAT DONALD IS TATTOOED WITH THE MAGIC CIRCLE

AT WAR WITH PONTIAC

OR

THE TOTEM OF THE BEAR

_A TALE OF REDCOAT AND REDSKIN_

CHAPTER I

TAWTRY HOUSE

A glorious midsummer day was drawing to a close; its heat had passed;
the tall forest trees, whose leaves were pleasantly rustled by the cool
breeze of approaching night, flung a bridge of tremulous shadows across
the surface of Loch Meg, and all nature was at peace. The tiny lake,
though bearing an old-world name, was of the new world, and was one of
the myriad forest gems that decked the wilderness of western New York a
century and a half ago. It was embraced in a patent recently granted
by the English king to his well-approved servant Graham Hester, whose
bravery and wounds had won for him an honorable retirement, with the
rank of major in a Highland regiment, ere he was forty years of age.
Being thus provided with an ample estate, Major Hester, with his young
wife and half a dozen trusty followers, left the old world for the new,
and plunged into its wilderness. Though somewhat dismayed to find his
property located a score of leagues beyond that of his nearest white
neighbor, the major was at the same time gratified to discover in that
neighbor his old friend and comrade, William Johnson, through whose
diplomacy the powerful Iroquois tribes of the Six Nations were allied
to the English and kept at peace.

On a crest of land overlooking and sloping gently down to the blue
lakelet which Major Hester had named in honor of his wife, he erected a
substantial blockhouse of squared timbers. Behind it were ranged a
number of log outbuildings about three sides of a square, in the centre
of which was dug a deep well. Having thus in a time of peace prepared
for war, the proprietor began the improvement of his estate with such
success that, within three years from the felling of the first