adn't tumbled--! Don't you cry,
brother," he warned.

"Who's cryin'! Don't you bawl, yourself!"

"I blamed near skinned out. If I'd had a better head start I'd have
run clean home; and then the folks would be makin' these Injuns hop,
you bet," declared Brashear, the "Buck Elk."

"Aw, the Injuns would have followed you. They'd likely have shot you,
so you wouldn't give the alarm," retorted Fat Bear, wisely. "We're all
right. Who's afraid of Injuns. If we don't act up they'll treat us
well. The Miamis and Potawatomis ain't as bad as the Shawnees."

"Wonder where they'll take us," puffed the fifth boy.

They were being hustled at a trot. The river was crossed on the slushy
ice. All that day they traveled northward; and all the next day, and
the next, and the next, and on and on. No pursuit was sighted.
Probably Colonel Pope and the other families had thought that they were
spending Sunday at the ponds, and had not looked for them until Monday
morning.

The Indians were Miamis. That promised a journey clear to northern
Indiana, perhaps. Whew! But Little Fat Bear and Buck Elk encouraged
the fellows to "keep a stiff upper lip," and take whatever came; then
the Indians would respect them more. If they put up a "holler" and
"bellered," they'd be licked.

This worked out finely. Pluck always does. They and their captors got
along splendidly, and they were not tied at night nor made to carry
loads. Nevertheless, it was a tremendous journey, straight northward
through the wilderness, with never a glimpse of any town, until, after
a week or more, they arrived at the Miami village.

"How far've we come, you think?" asked William Wells, when the village
was to be seen and by the preparations they knew that it was the place.

"Upwards of two hundred miles, I'll bet," replied Fat Bear. He was not
so fat, now.

That was a shrewd guess. The village was upon the Little Calumet
River, near present Valparaiso in northwestern Indiana--a full two
hundred and twenty-five miles from Louisville opposite the southern
boundary. They had been taken through the whole state.

"The gauntlet! Cracky! We've got to run the gauntlet!"

"Golly! The same as any prisoners!"

"Don't you show the white feather, any of you. Keep together and run
like sixty."

"And don't you tumble over again, either," they warned, of Fat Bear.
"If you're down once, you'll get licked proper."

"Make for the council house. That's the