them. They are my friends. I am a child of their
tribe. They love me; and if I go forth to them, they will listen to
what I say." His whole manner seemed changed. As he spoke, his eye
brightened. He looked a different being to the careless boy he had
hitherto seemed.

"How can you influence them, Laurence?" asked Mr Ramsay. "They are not
likely to abandon their designs for anything you can say."

"Oh, yes, yes, I am sure they will," answered Laurence. "Let me go
forth at once. I'll tell them that you are my father's friend, that you
preserved my life, and that, if they love me as they say, they must not
hurt you or any of your people."

"But I am afraid that they will shoot you before they know who you are,"
said Mr Ramsay.

"Oh, I'll run the risk," exclaimed Laurence. "Let me go forth at once,
before it is too late. I will tell them how unwilling you were to
injure any of them, and that you are good and kind, and wish to be the
red man's friend."

Mr Ramsay, thinking that Laurence might be the means of preserving the
fort, no longer opposed his proposal. Laurence, however, agreed to take
a white flag in his hand, with the meaning of which most of the tribes
accustomed to trade at the forts were well acquainted.

Slipping out at a small postern gate, he let himself down into the
trench unseen by the Sioux, and climbing up the opposite bank, the next
instant was bounding down the slope of the hill, waving his flag. In a
few minutes he had reached the chief who had led the assailants. He
uttered a few words, and the next moment the savage warrior stood
grasping his hands and gazing in his countenance.

"My second father, though your child has long been away from you, he has
not forgotten you," he exclaimed; "but he would ere this have been in
the world of spirits had not the good white chief, commander of yonder
fort, saved his life; and you cannot, knowing this, desire to injure his
kind friends. No, my father; you and my brothers promised to be the
friend of your son's friends. I knew you even afar off, and my heart
yearned towards you, and I felt sure that you would listen to my
prayers. You know not the power and generosity of my white friends.
Even at this moment their far-reaching guns are pointed towards you, and
had they desired to take your life, they would have fired and laid you
and many of my brothers low."

Laurence continued for some minutes in the same strain. The chief
seemed t