ck this useless weight overboard."

"Are you going to drown him?" asked the other, as he obeyed the order
to face about.

"Not if I can help it; but we must take care that he doesn't drown us.
He would be only too glad of a chance to upset the canoe; and he
wouldn't have very hard work, either."

The getting of that young savage into the water was a difficult and
ticklish job; but they finally succeeded, after Donald had first
removed the gag from his mouth. He took the Indian's knife, and, as
the latter slid into the water, Bullen held him by the scalp-lock,
while Donald severed the thong that bound his wrists. In his rage, the
Indian attempted to seize the gunwale of the canoe and pull it under;
but, anticipating this, Donald struck him a rap on the head with the
back of the knife that caused him to change his mind.

"Do you think he can swim with his feet bound?" asked Bullen, as the
two white men resumed their paddling.

"Certainly he can," replied Donald; "and he can yell, too. Hear him?"

"I should say I did, and I wondered why you relieved him from that gag.
If he keeps up that racket, he'll bring the whole fleet in this
direction."

"That is exactly what I brought him along for, and what I want him to
do," replied Donald, with a laugh. "Nor do I care how much longer they
keep on in this direction, for I am about to take another. Don't you
remember that we passed the island--a blue dot far out in the
lake--this afternoon, so that it is now behind us and somewhere off in
the northeast? We have got to run for it by the stars, and decide on
our course before we entirely lose sight of the coast. Hush now, and
don't speak another word for the next hour, as you value your life."

With this Donald steered the canoe, in a great sweeping curve, out into
the vague blackness of the fresh-water sea.

CHAPTER XXX

IMMINENT DANGER OF THE SCHOONER GLADWYN

As the canoe containing Donald and the paymaster swept silently along
through the darkness, its occupants heard the cries of the young Indian
whom they had left in the water merge into a sound of other voices,
showing that he had been discovered by his friends, and then all was
quiet save for an occasional yell from the camp, where the fire-water
was exerting its baneful influence. At length these, too, died into
silence, the last glimmer of firelight was lost in the distance, and
the fugitives felt that they might safely exult over their escape,
t