mountain; but
the scout was so far removed from the two men while they were talking,
that he failed to gain the import of their words. He therefore knew
nothing of the scheme which had been so skillfully laid for entrapping
the three whites. When Ned came to tell him the story, the Indian was
astonished. He had not dreamt of any such thing, for he supposed that
his friends would await him where he told them to stay and not suffer
themselves to be persuaded to disobey him. He showed that he was
displeased, but he said little, and the feeling was not deep. Ned
Clinton generously assumed all the blame himself, and, like the
lightning-rod, it did not take him long to draw the lightning from the
wrathful cloud, so that all became serene again.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE MOHAWK EXPLAINS.

When Ned had told Lena-Wingo all, and succeeded in restoring him to good
humor, he attempted to draw from the Indian an idea of what he had been
doing since he left them. But the youth did not gain much satisfactory
information. The interview lasted but a short time, when Lena-Wingo
proposed that they should return to their friends, who must be quite
anxious over their continued absence. He added, also, that they could
not but be hungry--a want which he took particular pains to satisfy. On
the way to where the brother and sister had been left, the Mohawk turned
off to the right, and drew from beneath a fallen tree two goodly-sized
loaves of bread and fully ten pounds of well-cooked meat.

"Where in the name of the seven wonders did you get that?" asked Ned.

"Lena-Wingo make bread and cook meat," grinned the redskin.

"Come, now, that won't do," laughed his young friend. "You might have
cooked a piece of meat, but you never baked a loaf of bread in your
life. You have been making a call upon some of the folks in the valley."

"No--not that--Tory call on settler--Tory make bread--then go to
sleep--then Lena-Wingo call on Tory--go 'way--take bread."

That told the whole story. The Mohawk had made a raid upon some of the
thieves in the valley who had robbed some of the patriots only to be
spoiled in turn. Such being the fact, the food could not but taste all
the better to the fugitives, who were in sore need of nourishment.

The fact that several Iroquois were on the hunt for Lena-Wingo appeared
to cause that individual no concern. He walked forward as unconcernedly
as if there were no such things as war and hostile men of his own rac