t no one man could
so handle him. The feat had required the utmost exertions of two
athletic Indians pulling strenuously at the ends of the plaid passed
over a projection of rock, thus acting pulley-wise, and the good Glasgow
weave was shedding its frayed fragments through all the place by reason
of the strain it had sustained.

The next moment more serious considerations claimed his thoughts. He saw
that two men, fully armed, for Digatiski had secured ammunition for his
own gun from the cartouch-box of the soldier, could force his
withdrawal, bound as he was, farther and farther from the ensign and his
party, whose attention had been temporarily diverted from the scout's
delay in returning by signs of the enemy ambushed in another direction.

MacVintie still struggled, albeit he knew that it was vain to resist,
more especially when another Cherokee joined the party and dedicated
himself solely to the enterprise of pushing and haling the captive over
the rugged way,--often at as fair a speed as if his good will had been
enlisted in the endeavor. Now and again, however, the Highlander
contrived to throw himself prone upon the ground, thus effectually
hampering their progress and requiring the utmost exertions of all three
to lift his great frame. The patience of the Indians seemed illimitable;
again and again they performed this feat, only to renew it at the
distance of a few hundred yards.

At length the fact was divined by MacVintie. More than the ordinary fear
of capture animated Attusah of Kanootare. Colonel Grant's treatment of
his prisoners was humane as the laws of war require. Moreover, his
authority, heavily reinforced by threats of pains and penalties, had
sufficed, except in a few instances, to restrain the Chickasaw allies of
the British from wreaking their vengeance on the captive Cherokees in
the usual tribal method of fire and torture. The inference was obvious.
Attusah of Kanootare was particularly obnoxious to the British
government, the civil as well as the military authorities, and fleeing
from death himself, he intended at all hazards to prevent the escape of
his prisoner, who would give the alarm, and inaugurate pursuit from the
party of the ensign.

In this connection a new development attracted the attention of
MacVintie. As they advanced deeper and deeper into the Cherokee country
and the signs and sights of war grew remote,--no sounds of volleys nor
even distant dropping shots clanging from t