ted to hear if the sound would be repeated, or whether he had
only dreamed some one had called him.

In a moment the whisper came again, "Ta-lah-lo-ko."

"Who art thou?" asked Rene, in the Indian language.

"I am E-chee from Seloy, where I saw thee when thou first set foot on
the land of my people. Dost thou not remember?"

"Art thou not E-chee the Seminole?"

"To all appearance I am become one of these runaways, but my heart is
that of a true man, and I seek only an opportunity to escape from them
and to rejoin my own people. If indeed any of my people be left
alive," he added, bitterly.

"Dost thou think an escape may be effected?" asked Rene, eagerly, a new
hope dawning in his breast.

"I know not, but I can try, and should I fail, death itself were better
than life with these Seminole dogs."

Then Rene asked where they were and what E-chee knew of Cat-sha's plans.

He was told that they were in the great Okeefenokee swamp, even as he
had suspected. On the morrow they were to leave the canoes and find a
trail that led to the Seminole village, hidden in its most impenetrable
depths. When they reached it E-chee believed, from fragments of
conversation he had overheard, that there was to be a great feast, and
that the prisoners were to be tortured.

Then Rene told E-chee of the land of the Alachuas, and described to him
how he might reach it. This done, he asked the young Indian to reach a
hand into the breast of his doublet, where, within its lining, he would
find a feather with a slender chain and pin attached to it. This, on
account of his bonds, he could not get at with his own hands.

When E-chee had secured the feather, which was the very Flamingo
Feather given to Rene by Has-se, Rene told him to guard it with his
life; and, if he succeeded in escaping from the Seminoles, to convey it
with all speed to the land of the Alachuas. There he was to present it
to any of Micco's tribe, but in particular to one named Has-se the
Bow-bearer, if he could discover him. He was to tell them of the sad
plight of the prisoners, and beg of them to send a party to their
rescue.

Hardly had he finished these instructions when the snapping of a twig
near by caused E-chee to spring to his feet and pour out a torrent of
abuse upon Rene, at the same time giving him a kick that drew from the
prostrate lad an exclamation of pain. It was quite as much a groan of
despair; for he could not understand the action of the