oing in to supper."

Martin taking possession of the young stranger, I did not interfere, but
followed Pat, who had been led into the house. Though the poor fellow
had apparently lost his senses, he certainly had not lost his appetite,
and as soon as the food was placed before him he began to devour it
eagerly.

"Let him take his meat," observed Sandy. "It'll do the chiel gude. He
hasna had muckle to put intil his inside, though we spared him all we
could from our store."

We asked Sandy no further questions till supper was over, when he gave
us an account of his adventures.

Pushing directly southward, he had come across the trail Pat and I had
made in our wanderings several days before; when, following this up, he
had reached our last camp a short time after I had quitted it. At
first, misled by the trail I had formed when going in search of Pat, he
had continued to follow that; but convinced at last that I had returned,
he was on the point of coming back, when one of the men saw an object,
which he was sure was a human being, lying on the ground under a tree.
They soon discovered it to be Pat, who had fallen to the ground
exhausted, and would very soon have died. By pouring some
spirits-and-water down his throat he revived, and still further
recovered when he had taken some food. Though able to speak, he could
give no account of himself or me.

Sandy, who had come across the trail I had formed when returning to the
camp, now pursued it, and discovered that I had passed through the wood,
towards the river. He had gone about half way, when he caught sight of
a person endeavouring to conceal himself among the bushes. He at first
supposed that an Indian was lying in ambush for some sinister object,
and keeping his gun ready to fire he made his way towards the spot. His
surprise was great when he discovered the young white stranger whom he
had brought with him.

The lad was much alarmed at first, but his confidence returned when he
found that he had fallen into the hands of people of his own colour. He
could speak but a few words of the dialect of the Plain Crees, though
sufficient briefly to explain that he was making his escape from a tribe
who had kept him in slavery, and that his intention was to descend the
river, which he fancied fell into the ocean; and he said that he there
hoped to meet with friends who would be glad to have him back.

Sandy, on hearing this, accompanied him to the bank of the r