s into his own visual organs, and
muttered something about "de dunderin' shmoke," before he could reply.

"Yesh, yesh, I 'tends to you. You needn't be 'fraid. Dey won't hurt
you, I doesn't t'ink. Dey jist keeps you. May be dey burns you, but
dat ain't sartain. I must go to Oonomoo now, for I've been away from
him a good long while."

"Tell him I am hopeful."

"Ain't dere notting else to tell him?" asked Hans Vanderbum, still
lingering.

"I know of nothing else. He certainly needs no advice from me."

"Notting to send to Lieutenant Canfield, eh?" again queried Hans.

"Tell Oonomoo," said the girl, looking down to the earth, "that if he
meets Lieutenant Canfield to say the same thing to him for me, that I
am waiting and hopeful, and have a good friend constantly by me, which
lightens, in a great measure, the gloom of my captivity."

"Who ish dat friend?"

"You."

"Yaw, I tells him. Good-by; be a good gal till I comes back. I bees
back burty soon."

So saying, Hans passed out of the wigwam on his way to return to
Oonomoo. His prolonged conversation with Miss Prescott had attracted
the attention of the Indians who were lingering outside, and several
asked him its purport. To these he invariably replied, "she didn't
know wheder it was going for to rain or not, but she fought it would do
one or toder."

From his long residence among the Shawnees and his family connection
with them, Hans Vanderbum was not suspected of disaffection. Indeed,
it could not properly be said that he felt thus toward them. He would
not willingly do anything to injure them any more than he would have
fought against his own race. Had he been dwelling among the whites, he
would have befriended any hapless prisoner that might be in their power
as he intended to befriend the poor girl with whom he had just been
conversing.

It was about noon when he reached his own wigwam. He looked in, and
seeing that the fish had been cooked and was ready, told his wife that
he didn't feel very hungry and he guessed he would take a short walk
for his health. She, however, ordered him at once to take his place
inside and eat his dinner. The henpecked husband dared not refuse, and
he was accordingly compelled to take part in the meal, while constantly
occupied in thinking that the Huron was waiting for him; but, as
patience is one of the cardinal virtues of the North American Indian,
Hans was sure of finding him at the rendezvous upon his r