ound
together with leathern thongs that not even death could separate them.
As our tormentors came around for the fifth time, one of the horses
stumbled and fell and rolled completely over, pitching his rider
headlong upon the prairie. Before he could regain his horse, father's
rifle cracked and the unlucky equestrian rolled prone upon the ground
with a bullet in his brain.

[Illustration: The Capture.]

"That's one less," muttered father, grimly. "I thought I'd fetch ye, ye
painted varmint." "Don't fire for your lives, boys," he continued,
"'till I'm loaded." They were the last words he ever uttered.
Simultaneously with their utterance came the hiss of an Indian arrow,
and with a deep groan he sank to the ground. Terror stricken, and with
anguished hearts we raised him in our arms. Alas, the deadly aim had
been too true; the shaft, entering his right eye had penetrated the
brain, and we saw at a glance that our dear father was no more. Racked
by contending emotions, we had almost forgotten our imminent peril; as
we turned to confront the foe, we saw that our hesitation had been
fatal; the red warriors were upon us like a living tide, and for a few
seconds a wild melee followed; we battled hand to hand with the
desperation of fiends; it was but for an instant; my brave brother fell
covered with wounds, and his death shriek was still ringing in my ears,
when I received a blow upon the head which stretched me senseless upon
the ground. I seemed to experience the sensation of falling from a vast
height, then came a sudden shock and all was blank.

CHAPTER III.

A STRANGE ADVENTURE.

When consciousness returned, I found myself lying on the ground, tied
hand and foot with thongs of buffalo hide; I felt very sore and
intensely thirsty. I had not quite yet collected my senses, and when my
mind reverted to the scenes I had but just passed through, it was with a
sickening sense of their horror that made me yearn for insensibility
again. If I could only know what had been done with my wife; had she met
the same fate as my father and brother, or was she spared--spared, and
for what--to be subjected to a captivity even worse than death, perhaps?
It would have been a great relief to have moved even so much as a
finger, but being bound so tightly it was impossible to stir, and the
thongs had in a great measure impeded the circulation, so that as I lay
on my back, gazing pathetically at my feet, it seemed as if they were