ND
SAMSON AND I LEAVE THE CAVERN TO RECONNOITRE--THE INDIAN MASSACRE--
SANDY, REUBEN, AND MIKE ARE HOTLY PURSUED--OUR FORTRESS BESIEGED--WE
HOLD OUT, AND BEAT OFF OUR BESIEGERS--OUR START--THE ELK.

The Indians, instead of binding Mike, as I expected they would do,
allowed him to come and sit by me under the tree; narrowly watching him,
however, though they did not interfere with us.

"Faix, thin, Masther Roger, I don't think these Ridskin gintlemen can be
intending to do us much harm, or they would not be afther letting us sit
so quietly by ourselves," he observed.

"I am not so confident of that, Mike," I answered. "We must wait till
the rest come up, to judge how they will treat us; at all events, I
would advise you, when you get the chance, to mount one of their best
horses and gallop off. I am afraid that I shall be unable to make the
attempt, or I would try it."

"Why, thin, Masther Roger, would you be afther belaving that I would go
and desart you? Even if they were to bring me a horse, and tell me to
mount and be off, it would break me heart intirely to think that I had
left you to their tinder mercies. Whativer they do to you, they may do
to me; and I'll stop and share iverything with you."

"I deeply feel your generosity, Mike," I said; "but you might have saved
yourself and got back to the waggons, had you not attempted to carry me
off, and I therefore wish you to try and escape if you have the
opportunity."

Mike laughed and shook his head; and when I still urged him to escape if
he could, he put on that look of stolidity which an Irishman so well
knows how to assume, and refused to reply to any of my remarks.

While we had been talking, the Indian I had seen following us
approached, having slowly walked his horse, which had apparently been
lamed. I now caught sight of the person behind him, and with much
concern recognised my friend Reuben. One of our captors assisted him to
dismount; and Reuben, with his hands bound, was dragged forward to a
short distance from us, where he was compelled to sit down on the
ground, the Indians intimating by signs that he must not move. He
looked very melancholy, evidently imagining that he was soon to be put
to death. I tried to cheer him up by telling him that we had not been
ill-treated.

"That may be," he answered; "but I know their treacherous nature.
Depend upon it, when they all eat together, and talk over the number of
their warriors who have been s