o the forest again. Following the stream in its
windings they came to where it debouched into a wide and muddy creek,
which, in its turn, flowed into an expanse of water that lay like molten
silver beyond the fringe of trees.

"The Pamunkey!" exclaimed Landless.

The Indian nodded and led the way to a thicket of dwarf willow and alder
that grew upon the very brink of the creek.

"While the palefaces slept, Monakatocka was busy. Look!" he said,
parting the bushes and pointing.

Within the thicket, drawn up upon the sloping mud, were two large
canoes, quite empty save for a debris of broken oars.

Landless gasped. "How do you know them to be the same?"

The Indian stooped and pointed to dark stains. "Blood. They had wounded
among them. And this." He put something into the other's hand. Landless
looked at it, then thrust it into his bosom. "You are right. It is a
ribbon which the lady wore. But why have they left their boats, and
where are they?"

The Indian pointed to the side of the larger canoe. "The hatchets of the
Pamunkeys were sharp. They fought like real men. This canoe could go no
further. See, it is wet within--they had to ply the gourd very fast to
keep afloat so far. One canoe would not hold them all, so they hid both
here. They knew the palefaces would follow up the river, so they cared
not to stay upon its banks; the Pamunkeys, too, are their enemies. They
have gone through the forest towards the Powhatan. My brother cannot see
their trail, for the eyes of the palefaces are clouded, but Monakatocka
sees it."

Landless turned upon him. "Will Monakatocka go with me against the
Ricahecrians?"

"Monakatocka has dreamt of the village on the pleasant river where he
was born. The arm of the white men cannot reach him here, in these
woods, far from their wigwams and warriors and guns; it cannot pluck him
back to be beaten. He toils no more in their fields. He is a real man
again, a warrior of the long house, a chief of the Conestogas. Let my
white brother go with him, across the great rivers, through the forest,
until they come to the Susquehanna and the village of the Conestogas.
There will the maidens and the young men welcome Monakatocka with song
and dance, and my brother shall be welcome also and shall become a great
chief and shall take the warpath against the Algonquin and against the
paleface at the side of Monakatocka. In the Blue Mountains is Death. Let
us go to the pleasant river, to the hunting