well, and good wishes, rang in the air.

For the first three days no adventures were met with. The party had
no difficulty in killing game sufficient for their needs, and at
night they halted at streams or pools. Ned observed, however, that
at the last halting place the chief, who had hitherto taken no
precaution at night, gave some orders to his followers; four of
whom, when the rest laid down to rest, glided off in different
directions into the darkness.

Ned pointed to them inquiringly, and the chief intimated that they
were now entering the hunting grounds of another tribe. The
following day the band kept closely together. A vigilant lookout on
the plains was kept up, and no straggling was allowed. They had
sufficient meat left over, from their spoils of the day before, to
last for the day; and no hunting was necessary.

The next evening, just as they had retired to rest, one of the
scouts came in and reported that he heard sounds around, which
betokened the presence of man. The calls of animals were heard on
the plain; and a herd of deer, which had evidently been disturbed,
had darted past at full speed.

The chief now ordered great quantities of dried wood to be thrown
into the fire, and a vast blaze soon shot up high, illuminating a
circle of a hundred yards in diameter. Advancing to the edge of
this circle, the chief held out his arms, to show that he was
unarmed; and then shouted, at the top of his voice, to the effect
that he invited all within hearing to come forward, in peace. The
strange appearance that they saw was a boon, given to the Indian
people by two great white beings, who were in his camp; and that,
by its aid, there would be no more cold.

Three times he shouted out these words, and then retired to the
fire and sat down. Presently from the circle of darkness a number
of figures appeared, approaching timidly and with an awe-struck
air, until within a short distance of the fire.

Then the chief again rose, and bade them welcome. There were some
fifty or sixty of them, but Ned and his friend had no fear of any
treachery, for they were evidently under the spell of a sense of
amazement greater than that which had been excited among those they
first met; and this because they first saw this wonder by night.

When the newcomers had taken their seats, the chief explained to
them the qualities of their new discovery. That it made them warm
and comfortable their own feelings told them; and on the m