taken to a canoe to paddle up the Kansas river. Both my
companions, Tom Noggin and Silas Blount, were staunch fellows. It
doesn't do to have a man in our way of life one can't depend on. We had
passed several beaver dams, which we settled to visit on our return, and
as long as the season would allow to push higher up the stream. There's
no pleasanter life than that we led. We landed when we felt inclined to
stretch our legs and take a shot at a deer or a bear. We killed more
deer than we could eat, so we only kept the tenderest parts; but the
skins were of no little value.

"One evening we landed at an open spot, with plenty of thick trees
though growing round, intending to camp there. We had lighted a small
fire, and we took care that the wood was dry, so that it should send up
no smoke to show our whereabouts to any lurking red-skins; Silas and
Noggin took their guns, and said they would go and have a look for a
deer, or a bear, or a turkey, while I sat over the fire and cooked the
venison. I cut some right good steaks, and had dressed them to a turn,
and was thinking that it was time my companions were back, when I heard
Blount's voice singing out merrily as he came through the wood towards
me. We had no fear of red-skins, for we had met with no traces of them
as we came up the river, and the first thing we had done that day on
landing was to look about for them in every direction. Blount sat
himself down by my side and showed me a fat turkey he had just killed,
when we heard a shot at some distance from us. We waited some time,
thinking Noggin would be coming back; but, as he did not make his
appearance, I asked Blount to climb a tree and see if he could make him
out anywhere. Curiously enough, he slung his rifle on his back--he had
already his shot belt and powder-horn about him--and up a high tree, a
little way off, he went. Scarcely had he got to the top, when I heard
him cry out, `Fly, man, fly; the red-skins are on us!'

"I did not want a second warning. Seizing my rifle, I sprang to the
riverside, and as I did so, a band of Indians burst through the woods
brandishing their tomahawks, and uttering their hideous war-cries. I
threw myself into the canoe, and with a kick of my foot shoved it off
from the bank towards the middle of the stream. I looked for the
paddles; there was only one in the canoe; I seized it, and began to
paddle away down the stream with all my might. The Indians followed me