is lodge, situate almost in the centre of the Indian camp.

For eight days we were kept thus close prisoners, without a ray of hope,
and then came the unexpected.

At least once in every twenty-four hours, and sometimes twice, the bonds
were taken from our arms that we might feed ourselves on such food as
savages cast to their dogs. Perhaps thrice in that long term of captivity
were we permitted to walk around the lodge, and, save for that short
respite from our suffering, I believe of a verity we would have lost the
use of our limbs.

Half-starved, suffering oftentimes the keenest pangs of thirst, and
believing that all this torture was the preface to something yet worse, it
can well be imagined that we were indeed a sorry party. Even Sergeant
Corney ceased trying to animate us, for despair had seized upon him.

When we did hold converse among ourselves, it was usually regarding Jacob.
We had neither seen nor heard anything of the lad since the hour he left
us in the cave to get speech with his father, and it was to me wondrous
strange that he who had been so eager when there was but one prisoner, had
apparently lost all desire to render aid after two more had been captured.

During the first two or three days we believed he was skulking around
somewhere near at hand, with the vain hope that he might be able to effect
our escape; but as the time passed on it became certain that such could
not be the case, otherwise he would have succeeded in making his way to
the lodge, as he had done when his father was the only occupant of it.

So far as I could make out, there was no more vigilant guard kept after we
were taken than before, and the lad must have succeeded in getting speech
with us had he made the effort during those times when the savages gave
themselves up to dancing or feasting, as occurred at least once in every
eight and forty hours.

Then we decided he had gone in search of General Herkimer's men, thinking
to enlist a sufficient number of them in our behalf; but if such had been
the case we should have heard something from him, at least when eight days
were passed, and after that time we made no mention of the lad, believing
he had been discovered near the encampment and killed outright.

And now it must be understood that during all this time St. Leger's army
was laying close siege to Fort Schuyler, and, strange as it may seem, we,
closely confined in that lodge of skins, had a fairly good idea of what