Then it began to move slowly in the direction of headquarters.

All this time there had been standing a short distance away an Indian
youth, and an Indian maiden whose beauty attracted much attention and
many outspoken remarks from the soldiers who sauntered past with rude
stares and ruder laughter. The girl flushed, glanced about her
indignantly, and finally as Edith and Donald began to move away, said
in a low tone to her companion:--

"Let us go. They have no thought for us. We are no longer wanted."

So they disappeared; and when, a little later, Donald came back in
eager search for Ah-mo and Atoka, they were nowhere to be found nor
could he gain any information concerning them.

CHAPTER XL

THE PRINCESS ANSWERS DONALD'S QUESTION

While the army of Bouquet was operating in the south and reducing to
submission the tribes of the Ohio valley, another force under command
of Colonel Bradstreet, skirted the southern shore of Lake Erie,
destroying Indian villages wherever they were found and finally reached
Fort Detroit. Thus was the long siege of that frontier post raised,
and after fifteen months of close confinement within its palisades the
weary garrison were once more free to venture forth, without the risk
of being ambushed by an ever vigilant foe. Treaties were signed with
all the chiefs of that region, save only Pontiac, who, filled with
bitter grief at the failure of the great project to which he had
devoted the energies of his life, sullenly retired to his forest
stronghold on the Maumee. From there he gave out, that if by spring he
had not raised a sufficient force to renew his struggle against the
hated redcoats, then would he visit Sir William Johnson, whom alone he
recognized as representing the English king, and sign a treaty.

So it happened that the great chief, accompanied by such a retinue as
became his rank, presented himself before the walls of Fort Oswego
early in the following June and was saluted by a salvo of artillery.
Sir William had journeyed that far to meet him, and here the treaty was
signed by which Pontiac bound himself to fight no more against the
English. After the formalities were concluded, the Ottawa chieftain
remained in that vicinity for several weeks as the guest of the
governor.

About this time the Bullens reached New York from a flying trip to
Oswego, where the paymaster had been summoned on business. Madam
Bullen, whom we have long known as Madam Rothsay