into their usual menacing
silence, and the sullen march was resumed. Presently the stream made a
sharp bend across our path, and we forded it as best we might. It ran
dark and swift, and the water was of icy coldness. Beyond, the woods
had been burnt, the trees rising from the red ground like charred and
blackened stakes, with the ghostlike mist between. We left this dismal
tract behind, and entered a wood of mighty oaks, standing well apart,
and with the earth below carpeted with moss and early wild flowers. The
sun rose, the mist vanished, and there set in the March day of keen wind
and brilliant sunshine.

Farther on, an Indian bent his bow against a bear shambling across a
little sunny glade. The arrow did its errand, and where the creature
fell, there we sat down and feasted beside a fire kindled by rubbing two
sticks together. According to their wont the Indians ate ravenously, and
when the meal was ended began to smoke, each warrior first throwing
into the air, as thank-offering to Kiwassa, a pinch of tobacco. They all
stared at the fire around which we sat, and the silence was unbroken.
One by one, as the pipes were smoked, they laid themselves down upon
the brown leaves and went to sleep, only our two guardians and a third
Indian over against us remaining wide-eyed and watchful.

There was no hope of escape, and we entertained no thought of it. Diccon
sat, biting his nails, staring into the fire, and I stretched myself
out, and burying my head in my arms tried to sleep, but could not.

With the midday we were afoot again, and we went steadily on through the
bright afternoon. We met with no harsh treatment other than our bonds.
Instead, when our captors spoke to us, it was with words of amity and
smiling lips. Who accounteth for Indian fashions? It is a way they
have, to flatter and caress the wretch for whom have been provided the
torments of the damned. If, when at sunset we halted for supper and
gathered around the fire, the werowance began to tell of a foray I had
led against the Paspaheghs years before, and if he and his warriors, for
all the world like generous foes, loudly applauded some daring that had
accompanied that raid, none the less did the red stake wait for us; none
the less would they strive, as for heaven, to wring from us groans and
cries.

The sun sank, and the darkness entered the forest. In the distance we
heard the wolves, so the fire was kept up through the night. Diccon and
I were ti