iscovered a dark face peering out
from some bushes on the bluff, and waved his hand in that direction in a
friendly way. The searching eyes instantly disappeared. It required
courage to follow the program Ree had mapped out, now when it was known
that vengeful and cruel Delawares were lurking so near, themselves fully
protected by the bank and brush, and trees; but when, a few minutes later
Ree saw an Indian looking down at them, and the fellow put down his gun
as a sign of friendliness, they knew they had acted wisely.

Notwithstanding the show of friendliness, however, Tom Fish said: "Keep
your wits about ye, kittens, there ain't no snake in the woods as
treacherous as them varmints."

Two savages were soon seen coming down the path, and Ree and John, laying
down their guns, as the Indians had done, walked forward to meet them.
Thus peace was secured for the time being, at least, and as the boys
shook hands with the Redskins, the latter gave them to understand that
their chief was in waiting to be met and conducted to the camp.

Ree went to the cart and secured from their stock of merchandise a small
hand-mirror in a round, pewter frame with a pewter lid over it, and with
this for a present to the chief, he and John were guided to a spot not
far away where the savage warrior and his braves were assembled. He was a
tall muscular young fellow and would have been handsome had it not been
for a look of malicious cunning and wickedness in his small dark eyes.
But the gift of the mirror pleased his savage fancy greatly and he
accepted it with a show of friendliness.

There were eleven Indians in the party. John could not repress a smile
when he saw the singed hair and burned face of the young brave whom Ree
had knocked into the fire, but even Kingdom failed to recognize the
savage with whom he had battled for his very life alone in the darkness.
By sign or otherwise neither of the boys made any reference to the
adventure of the day and night before, but with perfect friendliness
conducted the Indians to their camp.

Tom Fish's spirits had grown lighter when he saw that a fight would be
avoided and he greeted each Indian in his happy-go-lucky fashion.

"You're a good un," he said to the chief. "Got a little muscle, too,
ain't ye? Ain't no religion in that eye o' your'n, though!"

And so it went with the whole party. As he noticed the buck who was
burned Tom laughed aloud. "Pretty near took the hide off, didn't it,
Sma