the
inflamed body was one glowing red and angry surface. No needle could
have been stuck where the venomous stings of a thousand sand-flies or
musquitoes had not already sucked blood. Ay, well might the child start
back with horror!

"It is your friend the doctor, Henri," he said in French, still in a
strong but kindly voice. "I can not see you, but get me a knife. No, my
child, never mind--you can not find one; don't leave me."

Here the child timidly put his little hands out and brushed away the
poisonous insects, and then touched the doctor's face.

"Ah! Henri, see if you can not slip that pretty silk rope over my head;
yes, that is the way--_doucement_--easily, my child! Well, now, my
Henri, you are weak and sick, my poor little boy; but listen to me--yes,
I feel your little hands on my eyes. Well, bite upon that cord that goes
across my throat. Bite till it snaps asunder! I am nearly choking,
little one; but don't cry."

True, the strips of raw-hide, which had partially slackened in the rain
that had washed the body of the victim, now began to tauten again in the
sultry heat of the morning, and lay half hidden in the swollen throat,
stomach, and limbs of the tortured sufferer.

Henri's sharp little teeth fastened upon the strand, biting and gnawing,
until finally it was severed, and the doctor gave a great sigh of
relief.

[Illustration: "AH! HENRI, SEE IF YOU CAN NOT SLIP THAT PRETTY SILK ROPE
OVER MY HEAD."]

"Blessings on you, my poor boy!" he murmured, painfully. "Now bite away
on the strands which bind the arm. There! Don't! don't hurry! Rest a
little, my child! Ah! it is well!"

Again those sharp little teeth of a mouse had gnawed through the net
which bound the lion-hearted man; the ends of the raw-hide drew back and
twisted into spiral curls, and the right arm, though numbed and four
times its original size, was free.

"Thanks be to God for all His mercies!" exclaimed the doctor, as with
difficulty he raised his released arm to his face and pushed back the
swollen lids from his closed eyes--"and to you, my little friend, for
saving this wretched life!"

Waiting a few moments to recover his strength, the doctor made a mighty
effort, and some of the coils whose strands had been cut by those little
teeth yielded and gradually unrove, so as to leave the upper part of his
body free. Then, while the child was once more cutting the lashings of
his feet, he himself unfastened the knots of his left arm