f attempting to capture Captain Smith.

Then came an event which forever changed the life of Pocahontas, the
Captain's staunch admirer. He, after having adventured up the James
River to visit a struggling colony there, was sailing down the river
feeling weary and discouraged, as he had many enemies working against
him at Jamestown, and was so disheartened that he determined to leave
Virginia forever. As he lay musing and trying to sleep in the stern of
the ship, a bag of gunpowder exploded, wounding him so badly that he
leaped into the water to cool the burning agony of his flesh. He was
rescued and the ship sailed for Jamestown with all possible haste. His
wounds were dressed, but he was in a dangerous condition and there was
no skilled surgeon to care for him, so his plight was pitiable. An
Indian carried the sad news to Pocahontas, who at once deserted her
comrades for solitary brooding in the forest. Then she took the long
wood trail to Jamestown. Hours later one of the settlers found her
standing outside the stockade, peering through the cracks between the
logs as though it were some comfort to see into the village where her
Captain lay--that Captain who held her heart in his keeping. She would
have stood there less quietly had she known that an enemy of his had
stolen into his cabin and at that very moment was holding a pistol to
the wounded man's bosom, trying to nerve himself to do a deed he had
been bribed to do! But his courage failed, his hand dropped, and he
crept out into the silent night, leaving the wounded man unharmed.
While Pocahontas stood on tiptoe outside the stockade, straining her
eager eyes for a glimpse of the Captain's cabin, there were footsteps
beside her--a hand was laid on her shoulder, and a voice asked:

"Why are you here at such an hour, Pocahontas?"

It was one of the colonists who was Captain Smith's loyal friend.
Pocahontas turned to him, gripping her slender hands together in an
agony of appeal.

"He is not dead?" she asked. The man shook his head and a glad light
flashed into the girl's eyes.

"He has many enemies," she said. "Can you do nothing to nurse him back
to health?"

Tears stood in her black eyes, and her appeal would have softened a
heart less interested in the Captain's welfare than was her hearer's.
Promising to watch over the brave Captain and care for him as his own
kin, the white man soothed and comforted Pocahontas, and at last
induced her to leave her place a