ected belt
bearers must be fleeing fast. Moreover, Yellow Panther and his Miami
friends were near. He walked on, and the fiend he served gave him no
warning.

He came to a dense clump of bushes, and turned to go around it. There was
a sudden rustling in those bushes, and he looked up. A terrifying form
threw itself upon him and bore him to the ground. A heavy hand was clapped
upon his mouth, and the cry that had risen to his lips died in his throat.
He looked up and saw the face of Henry Ware. Beside him stood two others
whom he knew--Tom Ross and Shif'less Sol. He became blue about the lips,
and expected a quick death.

"Listen!" said Henry Ware, and every word that he said was burned into
Braxton Wyatt's wretched soul. "You are not to die, not at this time. But
you are to do what we say. Go back there, under those trees by the big
rock, and when Yellow Panther and the other Miamis come up, tell them that
you have lied! We were the belt bearers, and you are to say to Yellow
Panther that you knew us as real Shawnees, but you were so anxious for
the war that you denied us. Tell it as if it were true. Don't tremble!
Don't look once at these bushes! Our three rifles will be aimed at you all
the time, and if you say a single word that will make them suspect, we
fire, and you know that no one of us ever misses. Do as we say!"

He was released, the heavy hand was taken away from his mouth, and his
captors disappeared so suddenly and silently in the bushes that it was
almost unbelievable. Then Braxton Wyatt rose to his feet and trembled
violently. Though he could not see them now, he must believe. He could
feel that powerful grasp yet upon his arms, and that heavy hand yet upon
his mouth. He knew, too, as well as he knew that he was living, that the
unseen muzzles were there, trained upon him. As Henry Ware truly said, no
one of the three ever missed, and he had no chance.

He stopped his trembling with an effort of the will and walked to the rock
under the trees, thirty or forty yards away. Already he saw Yellow Panther
and the other Miamis coming, and he rebelled at the deadly menace from the
bushes. But the love of life was strong within him. He looked at Yellow
Panther, who was approaching with five or six warriors, and then he tried
to form a rapid plan. He would talk with the chief, saying at first what
his terrible enemies wished, and then, gradually drawing him away, he
would tell the truth, and thus achieve the des