silently
drew his fur robe about him and stole away to a forest retreat long
prepared for an hour of danger. Before him went a supply of
provisions, and with him some women and children, but not Pocahontas.
Meeting her father in his hasty flight, she listened to his request
that she go with him, but with a laughing gesture of refusal she fled
through the woods to the place where the white men were grouped. The
old Chief's power over his daughter had been greatly weakened by the
coming of the colonists to Jamestown, and who knows what a fire of
envy that may have kindled in his heart?

As soon as the Emperor reached his hiding-place, he sent an old Sachem
in war paint and feathers back to Captain Smith, bearing a valuable
bracelet as an offering, and saying that his chief had fled because he
feared the white man's weapons, but if they could be laid aside, he,
Powhatan, would return to give the colonists an abundance of corn.
Captain Smith, with arms folded and flashing eyes, refused the
bracelet and the request, and the Sachem went back to carry the news
to Powhatan.

Pocahontas had watched the interview with breathless interest, and
when she saw the old warrior turn away, and knew that Captain Smith
had foiled her father's intent, she knew that the brave _Caucarouse_
was in great danger. That night, while all the Englishmen except their
leader were out hunting, the Captain sat alone in his wigwam musing on
ways and means to gain his end. There was a sound in the still
forest--a crackling of underbrush--he roused at a light touch on his
arm. Pocahontas stood by his side, alone in the darkness; swiftly she
whispered her message and he understood its gravity only too well.

"My father is going to send you food, and, if you eat it, you will
die," she said. "It is not safe for you to stay here any longer. Oh,
go! I beg you, go!"

She was shivering in her fear for his safety, and the Captain was
deeply moved by her emotion. Raising her hand to his lips in his
wonted fashion, he thanked her and offered her the choicest beads in
his store for a remembrance, but she would not accept them!

"He would want to know where I got them, and then he would kill me,
too," she said, and vanished as silently and swiftly as she had come.

As she had reported, soon there came warriors from Powhatan bearing
huge vessels filled with food, smoking hot. The Chief had returned to
Werewocomoco, they said, and wished to show his good-will to