d felt breath returning and the labored pulse easing. Not daring
to pause long, I went forward at a slackened rate, knowing I must
husband my strength to swim or wade across the river. Was it the
apprehension of fear, or the buzzing in my ears, that suggested the
faint, far-away echo of a clamoring multitude? I stopped and listened.
There was no sound but the lapping of water, or rush of wind through the
leaves. I went on again at hastened pace, and distinctly down the valley
came echo of the Sioux war-whoop.

I was pursued. There was no mistaking that fact, and with a thrill,
which I have no hesitancy in confessing was the most intense fear I have
ever experienced in my life, I broke into a terrified, panic-stricken
run. The river grew dark, sluggish and treacherous-looking. By the
blood flowing from my feet, Indian scouts could track me for leagues. I
looked to the river with the vague hope of running along the water bed
to throw my pursuers off the trail; but the water was deep and I had not
strength to swim. The beaver-dam was huddled close to the clay bank of
the far side and on the side, where I ran, the current spread out in a
flaggy marsh. Hoping to elude the Sioux, I plunged in and floundered
blindly forward. But blood trails marked the pond behind and the soft
ooze snared my feet.

I was now opposite the beaver-dam and saw with horror there were
branches enough floating in mid-stream to entangle the strongest
swimmer. The shouts of my pursuers sounded nearer. They could not have
known how close they were upon me, else had they ambushed me in silence
after Indian custom, shouting only when they sighted their quarry. The
river was not tempting for a fagged, breathless swimmer, whose dive must
be short and sorry. I had nigh counted my earthly course run, when I
caught sight of a hollow, punky tree-trunk standing high above the bank.
I could hear the swiftest runners behind splashing through the marsh
bed. Now the thick willow-bush screened me, but in a few moments they
would be on my very heels. With the supernatural strength of a last
desperate effort, I bounded to the empty trunk and like some hounded,
treed creature, clambered up inside, digging my wounded feet into the
soft, wet wood-rot and burrowing naked fingers through the punk of the
rounded sides till I was twice the height of a man above the blackened
opening at the base. Then a piece of wood crumbled in my right hand.
Daylight broke through the trunk