heir failure
to overtake and rescue them, while the difficulty of raising a
sufficient number of men at the time to render an attempt upon the
Blackfoot stronghold possible with the faintest hope of success still
further increased their despair.

Even the dying missionary was scarcely able to give them hope or
encouragement, for by that time his voice was so weak that he could only
utter a word or two at long intervals with difficulty.

"The clouds are very dark, my father," said Whitewing.

"Very dark," responded his friend, "but on the other side the sun is
shining brightly."

"Sometimes I find it rather hard to believe it," muttered Little Tim.

Bounding Bull did not speak, but the stern look of his brow showed that
he shared the feelings of the little hunter. Big Tim was also silent
but he glanced at Softswan, and she, as if in reply to his thoughts,
said, "He doeth all things well."

"Ha!" exclaimed the missionary, with a quick glance of pleased surprise
at the girl; "you have learned a good lesson, soft one. Treasure it.
`He doeth all things well.' We may think some of them dark, some even
wrong, but--`Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?'"

Silence again ensued, for they were indeed very low, yet they had by no
means reached the lowest point of human misery. While they were sitting
there the Blackfoot band, under cover of the night, was softly creeping
up the zigzag path. Great events often turn on small points. Rome was
saved by the cackling of geese, and Tim's Folly was lost by the
slumbering of a goose! The goose in question was a youth, who was so
inflated with the miraculous nature of the deeds which he intended to do
that he did not give his mind sufficiently to those which at that time
had to be done. He was placed as sentinel at the point of the little
rampart furthest from the hut and nearest the forest. Instead of
standing at his post and gazing steadily at the latter, he sat down and
stared dreamily at the future. As might have been expected, the first
Blackfoot that raised his head cautiously above the parapet saw the
dreamer, tapped his cranium, and rendered him unconscious. Next moment
a swarm of black creatures leaped over the wall, burst open the door of
the hut and, before the men assembled there could grasp their weapons,
overpowered them by sheer weight of numbers. All were immediately
bound, except the woman and the dying man.

Thus it happened that when Rushing