young Indian,
and imagined him to be a vile traitor who had only gained his
confidence in order to betray it.

Directly, however, he heard the voice of Cat-sha demanding of E-chee
why he thus abused the prisoners. To this the young Indian made answer
that he had discovered that this one, who was the most troublesome of
the three, had nearly succeeded in loosening his bonds. This he would
doubtless have accomplished had not he, E-chee, been possessed of the
forethought to examine them as he made his rounds.

Commending his vigilance, Cat-sha, who was in the habit of personally
assuring himself of the safety of the prisoners several times during
each night, passed on. Then E-chee, after stooping to whisper to Rene
to be of good cheer, also moved away.

Before noon of the following day the canoes were run ashore, and Rene
was allowed to rise and step from the one in the bottom of which he had
travelled. As he did so, he at once knew the place as the head of the
little lagoon, where he had been left to nurse his snake-bite, while
Has-se explored the trail that led away into the swamp. It was with a
swelling heart that the lad contrasted his present position with the
one he had occupied at that time, and it was with difficulty that he
forced back the hot tears that his thoughts caused to stand ready to
flow.

The brave lad did not permit these signs of weakness to be seen, and he
received some comfort by catching a kindly look from E-chee, and
exchanging sympathetic glances with his fellow-prisoners, with whom,
however, he was not allowed to speak. They were of the new arrivals,
and on account of illness had been left in the fort when the fighting
men marched away to join Admiral Ribault.

As soon as the canoes had been drawn from the water and carefully
concealed, the Seminoles and their captives turned into the gloom of
the shadowy cypresses, and made their way in single file along the
narrow trail that led away from the lagoon. It was often covered with
water, and a misstep on either side of its entire length would have
plunged the unfortunate who should make it into a bottomless morass.
From it, without assistance, he would never be able to extricate
himself, but would only sink deeper and deeper, until he had
disappeared forever. It happened that one of the French prisoners did
step from the trail on this occasion. The brutal savages watched with
pleasure his frantic struggles to regain a footing, but wit