ay, leaving
Shif'less Sol and Paul in the hands of the renegade and the Iroquois.
The two prisoners were jerked to their feet and told to march.

"Come on, Paul," said Shif'less Sol. "'Tain't wuth while fur us to
resist. But don't you quit hopin', Paul. We've escaped from many a tight
corner, an' mebbe we're goin' to do it ag'in."

"Shut up!" said Braxton Wyatt savagely. "If you say another word I'll
gag you in a way that will make you squirm."

Shif'less Sol looked him squarely in the eye. Solomon Hyde, who was not
shiftless at all, had a dauntless soul, and he was not afraid now in the
face of death preceded by long torture.

"I had a dog once, Braxton Wyatt," he said, "an' I reckon he wuz the
meanest, ornierest cur that ever lived. He liked to live on dirt, the
dirtier the place he could find the better; he'd rather steal his food
than get it honestly; he wuz sech a coward that he wuz afeard o' a
rabbit, but ef your back wuz turned to him he'd nip you in the ankle.
But bad ez that dog wuz, Braxton, he wuz a gentleman 'longside o' you."

Some of the Indians understood English, and Wyatt knew it. He snatched
a pistol from his belt, and was about to strike Sol with the butt of it,
but a tall figure suddenly appeared before him, and made a commanding
gesture. The gesture said plainly: "Do not strike; put that pistol
back!" Braxton Wyatt, whose soul was afraid within him, did not strike,
and he put the pistol back.

It was Timmendiquas, the great White Lightning of the Wyandots, who
with his little detachment had proved that day how mighty the Wyandot
warriors were, full equals of Thayendanegea's Mohawks, the Keepers of
the Western Gate. He was bare to the waist. One shoulder was streaked
with blood from a slight wound, but his countenance was not on fire with
passion for torture and slaughter like those of the others.

"There is no need to strike prisoners," he said in English. "Their fate
will be decided later."

Paul thought that he caught a look of pity from the eyes of the great
Wyandot, and Shif'less Sol said:

"I'm sorry, Timmendiquas, since I had to be captured, that you didn't
capture me yourself. I'm glad to say that you're a great warrior."

Wyatt growled under his breath, but he was still afraid to speak out,
although he knew that Timmendiquas was merely a distant and casual ally,
and had little authority in that army. Yet he was overawed, and so were
the Indians with him.

"We were merely takin