"Dead!" exclaimed Roy, in a solemn tone.

"Not yet, lad! but I do b'lieve the poor critter's a'most gone wi'
starvation. Come, bestir you, boys--rouse up the fire, and boil the
kettle."

Walter and Roy did not require a second bidding. The kettle was ere
long singing on a blazing fire. The Indian's limbs were chafed and
warmed; a can of hot tea was administered, and Wapaw soon revived
sufficiently to look up and thank his deliverers.

"Now, as good luck has it, I chanced to leave my hand-sled at the Wolf's
Glen. Go, fetch it, Roy," said Robin.

The lad set off at once, and, as the glen was not far distant, soon
returned with a flat wooden sledge, six feet long by eighteen inches
broad, on which trappers are wont to pack their game in winter. On this
sledge Wapaw was firmly tied, and dragged by the hunters to Fort
Enterprise.

"Hast got a deer, father?" cried little Nelly, as she bounded in advance
of her mother to meet the returning party.

"No, Nelly--'tis dearer game than that."

"What? a redskin!" exclaimed Dame Gore in surprise; "is he dead?"

"No, nor likely to die," said Robin, "he's in a starvin' state though,
an'll be none the worse of a bit of our New Year's dinner. Here is game
enough for one meal an' more; come, lass, get it ready as fast as may
be."

So saying the bold hunter passed through the Fort gate, dragging the red
man behind him.

CHAPTER THREE.

PREPARATIONS FOR A FEAST.

"Why so grave, Robin?" inquired Mrs Gore, when her husband returned to
the parlour after seeing Wapaw laid in a warm corner of the kitchen, and
committed to the care of Larry O'Dowd.

"Molly, my dear, it's of no use concealin' things from you, 'cause when
bad luck falls we must just face it. This Injun--Wapaw, he calls
himself--tells me he has com'd here a-purpose, as fast as he could, to
say that his tribe have resolved to attack me, burn the Fort, kill all
the men, and carry you off into slavery."

"God help me! can this be true?"

"True enough, I don't doubt, 'cause Wapaw has the face of an honest man,
and I believe in faces. He says some of the worst men of his tribe are
in power just now; that they want the contents of my store without
paying for them; that he tried to get them to give up the notion, but
failed. On seeing that they were bent on it, he said he was going off
to hunt, and came straight here to warn me. He says they talked of
starting for the Fort two days after he did, and tha