I sat down and took some food,
of which I still had a small portion left. The air was tolerably warm,
and, fatigued as I was, I should under ordinary circumstances have
slumbered soundly; but as it was I felt very little inclination to
sleep. I was too anxious about Uncle Jeff, and Bartle, and Gideon. Had
Uncle Jeff escaped the bullets of the enemy; and had the others managed
to cut their way through the horde of savages? The white men in company
with the Redskins, I looked upon as no better than they were. What,
too, had become of the German and the Irishman? Had they, afraid of
fighting in the open, remained in the house, and fallen victims to the
flames? Such, indeed, must have been the fate of the poor wounded
fellows left in the house. My only satisfaction was, that we had done
all that men could do, and that we could not have saved their lives,
although we should, to a certainty, have sacrificed our own had we made
the attempt. Still I had an idea that Barney and Klitz had some plan of
their own for escaping, and that they might turn up some day or other.
I half expected to find that Bartle and Gideon had followed me, and I
looked out eagerly, hoping to see them. How far I had come I could not
exactly calculate, but I knew that, at the rate I had been moving, it
must be a considerable distance.

At length, overcome by fatigue, I fell asleep, trusting that He by whom
I had been mercifully preserved would watch over me. When I at last
awoke, daylight was glancing across the foaming waters, the only sound I
heard being that of their roar as they rushed over their rocky bed
towards the valley below. I knelt down and prayed, as I had been
accustomed to do from my childhood; and then, before resuming my
journey, I took some of the scanty remains of the food I had brought
with me, which I washed down with a draught from the stream.

Finding a practicable path to the left over the mountains, I followed
it, still resolved not to trust myself in the neighbourhood of our foes.
They could not have travelled over the mountains by night, but they
might take it into their heads to follow me by day, and it would be
unwise to linger. I did not slacken my speed, either, for if they did
come they would move as fast as I could, and I might be overtaken. I
stopped only occasionally, to eat a little food and to take a draught of
water, of which I now found abundance by the way.

I cannot fully describe the events of th