en from the region or
exterminated.

Late in the following afternoon Sam Oliver, when his friends halted,
donned his Indian garb. In his disguise he was scarcely to be
distinguished from one of the warriors.

"I have learned the lingo, too," he said laughingly. "A good many times
I have gone right into their villages and no one has suspected that I
was a white man. I want to get about fifteen horses," continued Sam,
"and I want almost as much to get one of the Indians alive."

"What for?" demanded Peleg in surprise.

It was seldom that prisoners were made of the warriors at that time,
because whenever a fight occurred it was usually a struggle to the
death. The Indians, however, occasionally, as we know from the
experiences of the great scout himself, not only made captives of their
prisoners, but at times adopted them into their tribes in place of young
braves that had been killed in battle.

"I want one for a pet," laughed Sam Oliver.

"I would sooner have a rattlesnake," declared one of the party.

"That is what I used to say," said Sam, "but then that was years ago
when I was young and slender. I know more about them now, and if I can
get one alive I am going to make a pet of him."

"You will be making a mistake," declared Schoolmaster Hargrave, who also
was one of Peleg's band. It had been long since he had wielded the
ferrule or had taught the boys and girls in Boonesborough. In recent
years he had been toiling in the fields, as had the great scout and
Peleg. He was, however, scarcely more successful in raising tobacco than
he had been in training the children in his school. The title of
"Schoolmaster" still clung to him, and when Sam Oliver laughed loudly
and turned to answer his protest, he said, "Well, Schoolmaster, I can
understand how you do not like the Indians. You had some pretty wild
experiences yourself, in the schoolhouse. I understand that two or three
of the boys disguised themselves the way I have and put you out through
the window. Is that true?"

Whether the statement was true or not it was never explained, for the
hunter suddenly warned his companions to become silent as they were
approaching the village he was seeking.

Advancing with three of his companions and leaving Peleg and the
remainder of the party behind to await their return, Sam stealthily
began to make his way toward the little Indian village which he said was
located only a few yards distant from the spot where a halt had