that we shall not pursue this journey with even more than
ordinary speed, for I mean to appear before these rascals in my role of
Fire King this very evening, and thereafter I fancy they will be only
too anxious to push ahead, in order to be rid of me as quickly as
possible."

"All right," replied Donald, "and I wish you success in it." Then he
bent with redoubled energy over his paddle. In spite of his efforts,
he was not satisfied with the progress made by the canoe. She appeared
to drag. It did not seem as though the Indians were doing good work,
and he spoke sharply to them several times in the course of the
morning. He had a suspicion that the steersman often turned the flat
of his paddle against the course of the canoe; but, as his back was
turned, he could not be certain of this. What he did know for a surety
was that, as they ran in toward the beach for a short midday halt, the
Zebra, with unpardonable carelessness, allowed the frail craft to run
against a sharp rock that cut a jagged gash in her birchen side. The
next moment she was on the beach, so that no one got even a wetting;
but a long delay ensued while a patch of bark was stitched over the
rent and payed with pitch.

When at length all was again in readiness for a start, Donald calmly
assumed the position of steersman in the stern, at the same time
motioning the Zebra to take his place among the paddlers. The man
hesitated a moment, seemed about to refuse, and then, with a second
glance at the young officer's determined face, slowly obeyed the order.
During the remainder of that afternoon the Indians labored at their
paddles in silence, and with scowling brows. It was evident to Donald
that a crisis of some kind was at hand. Even the paymaster noticed
that an uncomfortable feeling prevailed in the boat, but he had
implicit faith that his performance of that evening would set
everything to rights.

"These fellows will be my abject slaves before I am done with them," he
remarked cheerfully, and relying on their ignorance of English he
explained fully what he proposed to do. Not only would he repeat the
tricks that had already proved so successful, but he planned to
complete the subjugation of these particular savages by causing certain
green and blue flames to dance above their camp-fire. The whole was to
conclude with a slight explosion, that should leave the scene in
darkness, save for a weird phosphorescent light emanating from a face
t