inuously through it like an
obbligato accompaniment.

When Crusoe first heard the unwonted sound he sprang to his feet,
bristled up like a hyena, showed all his teeth, and bounded out of the
tent blazing with indignation and astonishment. When he found out what
it was he returned quite sleek, and with a look of profound contempt on
his countenance as he resumed his place by his master's side and went to
sleep.

CHAPTER TEN.

PERPLEXITIES--OUR HUNTERS PLAN THEIR ESCAPE--UNEXPECTED INTERRUPTION--
THE TABLES TURNED--CRUSOE MOUNTS GUARD--THE ESCAPE.

Dick Varley sat before the fire ruminating. We do not mean to assert
that Dick had been previously eating grass. By no means. For several
days past he had been mentally subsisting on the remarkable things that
he heard and saw in the Pawnee village, and wondering how he was to get
away without being scalped; he was now chewing the cud of this
intellectual fare. We therefore repeat emphatically--in case any reader
should have presumed to contradict us--that Dick Varley sat before the
fire _ruminating_!

Joe Blunt likewise sat by the fire along with him, ruminating too, and
smoking besides. Henri also sat there smoking, and looking a little the
worse of his late supper.

"I don't like the look o' things," said Joe, blowing a whiff of smoke
slowly from his lips, and watching it as it ascended into the still air.
"That blackguard Mahtawa is determined not to let us off till he gits
all our goods, an' if he gits them, he may as well take our scalps too,
for we would come poor speed in the prairies without guns, horses, or
goods."

Dick looked at his friend with an expression of concern. "What's to be
done?" said he.

"Ve must escape," answered Henri; but his tone was not a hopeful one,
for he knew the danger of their position better than Dick.

"Ay, we must escape; at least we must try," said Joe; "but I'll make one
more effort to smooth over San-it-sa-rish, an' git him to snub that
villain Mahtawa."

Just as he spoke the villain in question entered the tent with a bold,
haughty air, and sat down before the fire in sullen silence. For some
minutes no one spoke, and Henri, who happened at the time to be
examining the locks of Dick's rifle, continued to inspect them with an
appearance of careless indifference that he was far from feeling.

Now, this rifle of Dick's had become a source of unceasing wonder to the
Indians,--wonder which was greatly increased by