plan: Pepe and
I will stay here and guard this man, and if we die here, it will be in
the discharge of our duty, and with the joy of knowing you to be safe."

But Fabian shook his head.

"I care not for life without you; I shall stay," said he.

"What can be done then?"

"Let us think," said Pepe.

But it was unluckily one of those cases in which all human resources are
vain, for it was one of those desperate situations from which a higher
power alone could extricate them. In vain the fog thickened and the
night grew darker; the resolution not to abandon the wounded man opposed
an insurmountable obstacle to their escape, and before long the fires
lighted by the Indians along each bank, threw a red light over the
stream, and rendered this plan impracticable. Except for these fires,
the most complete calm reigned, for no enemy was visible, no human voice
troubled the silence of the night. However, the fog grew more and more
dense, the stream disappeared from view, and even the fires looked only
like pale and indistinct lights under the shadowy outline of the trees.

CHAPTER FORTY THREE.

A FEAT OF HERCULEAN STRENGTH.

Let us now glance at the spot occupied by the Blackbird. The fires
lighted on the banks threw at first so strong a light that nothing could
escape the eyes of the Indians, and a sentinel placed near each fire was
charged to observe carefully all that passed on the island. Seated and
leaning against the trunk of a tree, his broken shoulder bound up with
strips of leather, the Blackbird only showed on his face an expression
of satisfied ferocity; as for the suffering he was undergoing, he would
have thought it unworthy of him to betray the least indication of it.
His ardent eye was fixed continually on the spot where were the three
men, whom he pictured to himself as full of anguish.

But as the fog grew thicker, first the opposite bank and then the island
itself, became totally invisible. The Indian chief felt that it was
necessary to redouble his surveillance. He ordered one man to cross the
river, and another to walk along the bank, and exhorted every one to
watchfulness.

"Go," said he, "and tell those of my warriors who are ordered to watch
these Christians--whose skins and scalps shall serve as ornaments to our
horses--that they must each have four ears, to replace the eyes that the
fog has rendered useless. Tell them that their vigilance will merit
their chief's gratitude; but th