"I think," said Wyatt, "that Hyde did not manage it himself, all alone.
How could he? He was bound both hand and foot; and I've learned, too,
Blackstaffe, that four of the best Iroquois rifles have been taken. That
means one apiece for Hyde and the three prisoners that are left."

The two exchanged looks of meaning and understanding.

"It must have been the boy Ware who helped Hyde to get away," said
Blackstaffe, "and their taking of the rifles means that he and Hyde
expect to rescue the other three in the same way. You think so, too?"

"Of course," replied Wyatt. "What makes the Indians, who are so
wonderfully alert and watchful most of the time, become so careless when
they have a great feast?"

Blackstaffe shrugged his shoulders.

"It is their way," he replied. "You cannot change it. Ware must have
noticed what they were about, and he took advantage of it. But I don't
think any of the others will go that way."

"The boy Cotter is in here," said Braxton Wyatt, tapping the side of a
small hut. "Let's go in and see him."

"Good enough," said Blackstaffe. "But we mustn't let him know that Hyde
has escaped."

Paul, also bound hand and foot, was lying on an old wolfskin. He, too,
was pale and thin-the strict confinement had told upon him heavily-but
Paul's spirit could never be daunted. He looked at the two renegades
with hatred and contempt.

"Well, you're in a fine fix," said Wyatt sneeringly. "We just came in to
tell you that we took Henry Ware last night."

Paul looked him straight and long in the eye, and he knew that the
renegade was lying.

"I know better," he said.

"Then we will get him," said Wyatt, abandoning the lie, "and all of you
will die at the stake."

"You, will not get him," said Paul defiantly, "and as for the rest of
us dying at the stake, that's to be seen. I know this: Timmendiquas
considers us of value, to be traded or exchanged, and he's too smart
a man to destroy what he regards as his own property. Besides, we may
escape. I don't want to boast, Braxton Wyatt, but you know that we're
hard to hold."

Then Paul managed to turn over with his face to the wall, as if he were
through with them. They went out, and Braxton Wyatt said sulkily:

"Nothing to be got out of him."

"No," said Blackstaffe, "but we must urge that the strictest kind of
guard be kept over the others."

The Iroquois were to remain some time at the village, because all their
forces were not yet gathered for