rred to it and they could only praise the
wonderful ability of their friend.

"I tell you," said Fred, seating himself on the ground beside the other
two, after the flurry was over, "all this proves that skill is worth
more than strength. I am quite sure that I am as strong as you,
Deerfoot, but I don't believe that Terry and I together could lay you on
your back. When I had my arm around your neck, I suspected you would try
to slip out, and I squeezed you pretty hard. You slid out so quickly
that at the moment you were down at my heels, I thought I had you fast."

"I'm thinkin' that the nixt thing we should try is a race; Fred can
outrun me and I'll agraa that he will outrun Deerfut, that is, if ye'll
allow me to make the conditions."

"What would they be?" asked Deerfoot, Looking gravely down upon his
friends.

"The race should be for a hundred yards, and Deerfut must give Fred
ninety-five yards start, though to make it sure enough, maybe it ought
to be ninety-six or siven."

"Then you would require about ninety-nine, according to the same
calculation," said Fred.

"Ye's are right," replied Terry, to whom it seemed that no athletic feat
was impossible for the Shawanoe; "nayther yersilf nor mesilf have a
right to be mintioned in the same day with him."

CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE LAST CAMP-FIRE.

It seemed to strike all three of the friends at the same moment that
they had shown a strange forgetfulness of the occasion. A sudden impulse
had led them into a test of skill, that had continued fully a quarter of
an hour, during which there was no thought on the part of any one of the
gravity of their situation.

But a little while before, both Fred Linden and Terry Clark were in
distress on account of their friends, while their own position
(believing as they did that there were Winnebagos in front as well as in
the rear), ought to have driven away all inclination for sport or
amusement. One of their strongest desires was the presence of Deerfoot,
that they might have his counsel and help. Here he was, and no reference
had been made to the subjects uppermost in their minds. Now that he took
his seat near them by the camp-fire, as if to invite their confidence,
they quickly returned to the all important business.

First of all, they asked for his experience since their separation the
night before. He gave only a part of it. He told nothing about his
conflict with the Wolf and his companion, which resulted in