d he went a little farther. Then he heard a sound by
his side almost as light as that of a leaf that falls, and he whirled
about, but it was too late. A war club descended upon his head and he
fell unconscious to the ground.

CHAPTER XI

THE YOUNG SLAVE

Will's first sign of returning consciousness was a frightful headache,
and he did not open his eyes, but, instead, moved his hand toward the
pain as one is tempted to bite down on a sore tooth. It was in the top
of his head, and his fingers touched a bandage. Without thinking he
pulled at it, and the pain, so far from being confined to one spot, shot
through his whole body. Then he lay still, with his eyes yet shut, and
the agony decreased until it was confined to a dull throbbing in the
original spot.

He tried to gather together his scattered and wandering faculties and
cooerdinate them to such an extent that he could produce thought. It
required a severe effort, and made his head ache worse than ever, but he
persisted until he remembered that he had been creeping through bushes
in search of a sound, or the cause of a sound. But memory stopped there
and presently faded quite away. Another effort and he lifted his mind
back on the track. Then he remembered the slight sound in the bushes
near him, the shadow of a figure and a stunning blow. Beyond that his
memory despite all his whipping and driving, would not go, because there
was nothing on which to build.

He opened his eyes which were heavy-lidded and painful for the time, and
saw the figures of Indians that seemed to be standing far above him.
Then he knew that he was lying flat upon his back, and that his sick
brain was exaggerating their height, because they truly appeared to him
in the guise of giants. He tried to move his feet but found that they
were bound tightly together, and the effort gave him much pain. Then he
was in truth a captive, the captive of those who cared little for his
sufferings. It was true they had bound up his head, but Indians often
gave temporary relief to the wounds of their prisoners in order that
they might have more strength to make the torture long.

His vision cleared gradually, and he saw that he was lying on a small
grassy knoll. A fire was burning a little distance to his left, and
besides the warriors who stood up others were lying down, or sitting in
Turkish fashion, gnawing the meat off buffalo bones that they roasted at
the fire. The whole scene was wild and ba