h to do his best, in the
meanwhile, to help the strangers, vowing, if he succeeded in rendering
them any assistance, or in taking a single scalp of the villains that had
borne them off, he would not only never Lynch him, himself, but would not
even allow others to do it, though he were to steal all the horses in
Kentucky, his father's best bay mare included.

Thus encouraged, the valiant horse-thief, bidding farewell to Tom Bruce
and Brown Briareus together, commenced making good his words by creeping
back to the battle-field; when, arriving before Nathan, he struck the
trail of the main party, and immediately pursued it with zeal and
courage, but still with the necessary caution and circumspection; his
hopes of being able to do something to the advantage of his benefactress,
resting principally on his knowledge of several of the outer Indian
towns, in every one of which, he boasted, he had stolen horses. Being but
poorly provided with food, and afraid to hunt while following so closely
on the heels of the marauders, he was soon reduced to want and suffering,
which he bore for three days with heroic fortitude; until at last, on
the morning of the present day, being in a state of utter starvation, and
a buck springing up in his path, he could resist the temptation no
longer, and so fired upon it. The animal being wounded, and apparently
severely, he set off in pursuit, too eager to lose time by recharging his
piece; and it was while he was in that defenceless condition that the
five Indians, a detachment and rear-guard, as it proved, of the very
party he was dogging, attracted by the sound of his gun, stole upon him
unawares and made him a prisoner. This, it seems, had happened but a
short distance behind; and there was every reason to suppose that the
buck, from whose loins the travellers had filched the haunch that destiny
had superseded by a better, was the identical animal whose seducing
appearance had brought Stackpole into captivity. He was immediately
recognised by his captors, whose exultation was boundless, as indeed was
their cruelty; and he could only account for their halting with him in
that retired hollow, instead of pushing on to display their prize to the
main body, by supposing they could not resist their desire to enjoy a
snug little foretaste of the joys of torturing him at the stake, all by
themselves,--a right they had earned by their good fortune in taking him.
In the valley, then, they had paused, a