seless cruelty to arouse her anxiety before your fate was
definitely known."

"Which showed remarkable good sense on your part, and I thank you for
your consideration," cried Donald. "Her anxiety then must have been
for--"

"But how did you proceed to make good your promise?" interrupted
Christie, hastily. "It seems to me you undertook a pretty big
contract."

"So it was," responded the paymaster, "and in order to carry it out, I
became, from that moment, an Indian of the Indians, a redskin of the
redskins, and a savage of the savages. Why, for the sake of my paint I
even gave up my daily tubbing, which, by the way, in my present
position of deposed medicine man and white captive, I suppose I may
have the melancholy satisfaction of resuming. I immediately agreed to
accompany the war-party, telling them that, having once adopted the
Indian costume, I had thereby cut myself off from all companionship
with the whites. I promised to teach them the art of war as practised
by the redcoats, and show them how to capture Presque Isle without the
loss of a man.

"Oh you did, did you?" growled Christie.

"Yes, I did, and to begin with, I delayed their progress as much as
possible, in the hope that Cuyler might reach you before we overtook
him, and that you might join his retreat to Niagara. For this purpose
I insisted that they carry along my tub, which, as I truly affirmed,
contained all my medicine. Every morning when they were ready to
start, I sat in it, under a closed tent of matting, and performed magic
which they dared not interrupt. Sometimes the main body went on
without us, so fearful were they of interfering with my mystic rites."

"What did you do under the tent?" asked Donald.

"Oh, just jabbered gibberish and rattled things and made smokes,"
replied the ex-medicine man.

"Then, when we reached Presque Isle and found it still occupied, I
dissuaded them from an assault and proposed the scheme of a mine by
which the fort might be destroyed without the loss of a warrior.
According to their belief this mine was to run directly to the
blockhouse, but I so laid it out that it should strike a building some
distance away. Then I meant to collect all their powder, harmlessly
explode it beneath the empty building, and thus leave them without
means for prosecuting the fight. This plan miscarried through a
cave-in of the roof, which showed them the true location of the mine's
end and gave them a chance to set