ntly praying for the relief which I knew
death must soon give me, when I was startled by a wild cry, followed by
a yell of astonishment from the savage spectators. Opening my eyes I saw
the same gigantic Indian who had recaptured me on the day previous,
making his way rapidly through the crowd, who fell back to right and
left with precipitate haste. Rushing directly towards me he scattered
the blazing brands, released me as quick as thought, and dragged me to
the front of the temple, while the air resounded with the yells and
exclamations of the Indians. Raising his hand he hushed them into
silence, and uttered a few words in the Camanche tongue; their meaning
was lost upon me; I could only distinguish the word "Quetzalcoatl,"
which I knew to be the name of their God. But the revulsion of feeling,
and the terrible ordeal through which I had passed, proved too much for
my exhausted frame; I swooned and sank insensible to the earth.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VII.

WA-KO-MET-KLA.

The Indian to whom I owed my life a second time, and who had braved the
wrath of the fiends to snatch me from a death, in comparison to which
all others pale into insignificance, the tried friend, whose friendship
stood as a shield between me and petty persecution during my captivity,
I shall ever hold in grateful remembrance. To him I owe the only hours
of contentment that were vouchsafed me during seven years of existence;
seven long years of toil and mental anguish. How can I picture to the
imagination of my readers the noble qualities of head and heart with
which this child of nature was endowed? He was a rough diamond, and it
was only by the attrition of constant intercourse that his best
qualities displayed themselves. Physically he was perfect; his movements
were instinct with that grace and ease that are the attributes of those
alone whose lives have been spent in the cultivation of all exercises
that look to the development of the muscles. How vividly his image
presents itself to my mind as I write; his body, which was nude to the
waist, except on occasions, when religious observances demanded peculiar
attire, was streaked most fantastically with different colored pigments.
The head-dress, that consisted of two war eagles' plumes, one dyed
vermilion, the other its natural hue, served only the more to
distinguish a head that would have been conspicuous in any company.
Suspended from his neck by a massive chain hung a disc of be