herefore it was that I slept soundly and sweetly until a full hour past
noon, and when I awakened the sergeant was peering out through the leafy
curtain in front of the cave, while Jacob was enjoying his turn at sleep.

"Can you see the camp?" I asked, wriggling forward until my head was close
beside his, and then it was not necessary he should make reply, for we had
from this place of vantage a fairly good view of the red-skinned portion
of St. Leger's army.

It is true that the trees and bushes screened certain portions of the
encampment, but the greater number of the lodges were in a clearing, and
Sergeant Corney pointed out to me that shelter which Jacob had told him
was the one where his father was confined.

The Indians were lounging about lazily, some stretched at full length
sleeping, others gathered in little companies, squatting on the ground as
they smoked and talked, and not a few moving slowly to and fro; but never
one who appeared to have any business on hand.

There were both women and children in the camp, which struck me as being
odd, for when savages set off on the war-path it is not customary for them
to take their families; but I explained this peculiar state of affairs to
myself by the supposition that the women had been brought that they might
do the work, which is deemed unfitting a warrior.

"Jacob counts on payin' one more visit to his father before we start,"
Sergeant Corney said to me, when, having wearied with gazing at the scene,
I turned away.

"To what end?" I asked, with somewhat of irritation, for it did not seem
to me wise the lad should run the chances of capture when nothing was to
be effected by taking such risks.

"Only that he may speak with him."

"But it is folly!" I said, sharply. "It has been possible for him to go
into the village twice; but of a certainty it cannot be done many times in
safety."

"You are right, lad, an' yet how can we refuse him? Fancy if your father
was in the same tight place, an' ask yourself if, when about to turn your
back on him, perhaps forever, the desire to hold converse with him once
more would not be stronger than the fear of disaster?"

To this I could make no reply, as a matter of course; yet I was still
firmly convinced that it was a foolhardy venture. If there had been a
possibility of his doing the prisoner any good, then would I have said
that we would stay on until further efforts were of no avail. As it was,
however, Peter Sitz