were frayed from much running
through undergrowth. He was peering through the branches to a bend in
the river. He had lain there hours, watching. That morning, a canoe
containing two savages came up past him. The Indians were paddling
vigorously. Why their haste? That was what the boy would know.

The reader has guessed the lad's name and so will readily understand
that Rodney Allison concluded if the Indians were being pursued it was
by white men.

Ah! was it? Yes, surely that was the shadow of a canoe. Now he could
see its sides under the overhanging branches which concealed its
occupants from his view.

"An' all tin twins o' thim great at shenannegan,
An' all o' thim born in pairs.
Pat an' Terry, Tom an' Tim,
Peter, Mary Ann--"

"Halloa!"

"There's one of 'em coming down through the bushes now, Nick,"
exclaimed a man in the stern of the canoe.

"I never could sing that song without interruption, Chevalier."

The speaker had shipped his paddle and grasped his rifle, saying as he
did so: "Look out, boys, the voice is white but there may be red
shenannegan behind it."

Rodney Allison leaped to the beach below in full view of the party.
There he stood, panting and staring as though at a ghost.

"I say, sonny, if ye've objections to our looks now's the time to put
'em on file," said Nick.

"Dominick Ferguson! I thought you were dead!" gasped the boy.

"Aisy now, don't feel so bad bekase I'm not. Whereabout did ye find
the handle o' me name, lad?"

"So you're not the man the Indians killed, that day down on the Ohio,
when they captured me?"

"Do I look loike I was?" Then dawning comprehension showed in the
man's face. "Ah reckon poor Job Armistead was the unfortnit one; he
never showed up. May your name be Allison?" he asked.

"It is. Have you room in the canoe for one more?"

"We'll make room," spoke two of the men at the same moment, turning
the craft to shore. Thus, after long months of captivity and days of
fleeing through a country infested with warlike savages, Rodney
Allison came back to his own people.

"You must have seen my father, then, Mr. Ferguson?" said the boy as he
stepped into the canoe.

"Sure; found him expectin' ye an' he was nigh crazy. You ought to
heard him call us cowards an' knaves fer leavin' ye. He wanted to
start right off alone to bring ye back, an' would, but we told him
thar were others in his family to think about."

"