asked to partake.

Under the circumstances his appetite was not keen, but he felt obliged
to pretend to a relish that he did not feel, and while he was eating
his eyes lighted up with pleasure as he saw by her father's
side--though he did not know then of the relationship--the little
Indian girl whose interest in him had been so apparent when he saw her
in the village. He dared not smile in response to her vivid glance,
but his gaze lingered long on the vision of youth and loveliness, and
he turned back to his meal with a better appetite.

The feast at an end, Powhatan called his councilors to his side, and
while they were in earnest debate Captain Smith knew only too well
that his fate was hanging in the balance. At last a stalwart brave
arose and spoke to the assemblage. The captive, so he said, was known
to be the leading spirit among the white settlers whose colony was too
near the Indians' homes to please them, also in his expedition in
search of corn he had killed four Indian warriors with "mysterious
weapons which spoke with the voice of thunder and breathed the
lightning," and he had been spying on their land, trying to find some
secret means by which to betray them. With him out of the way their
country would be freed from a dangerous menace, therefore he was
condemned to death.

Doomed to die! Although he did not understand their words, there was
no misunderstanding their intention. Immediately two great stones were
rolled into the hall, to the feet of Powhatan, and the Captain was
seized roughly, dragged forward and forced to lie down in such a
position that his head lay across the stones. Life looked sweet to him
as he reviewed it in a moment of quick survey while waiting for the
warriors' clubs to dash out his brains. He closed his eyes. Powhatan
gave the fatal signal--the clubs quivered in the hands of the
executioners. A piercing shriek rang out, as Pocahontas darted from
her father's side, sprang between the uplifted clubs of the savages
and the prostrate Captain, twining her arms around his neck and laying
her own bright head in such a position that to kill the captive would
be to kill the Werowance's dearest daughter.

[Illustration: POCAHONTAS SAVES CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH]

With horror at this staying of his royal purpose, and at the sight of
his child with her arms around the white man's neck, Powhatan stared
as if at a hideous vision, and closed his ears to the sound of her
voice as her defiant In