The afternoon was well along, and no great distance could be passed over
before night. Jack dreaded their arrival at the Indian village before
another halt. He was hopeful that in the stillness and darkness of night
he would gain a chance to steal away from his captors, while the chance
of doing so when with the tribe itself would be much more difficult.

In one respect the wish of the youth was gratified. The party tramped
along in Indian file, without the slightest pause, until the darkness
began stealing among the trees. There was but the single warrior in
front, the others following the lad. Suddenly the leader stooped down
and paused. He was so close to Jack that evidently he meant to fling
him over his shoulders, and the boy barely escaped such discomfiture.
The others grinned again, and then the party appeared to fall apart and
take different positions. Two vanished in the wood, while the others
began hastily gathering dead limbs and decayed leaves. It seemed to Jack
that less than three minutes had gone by when he saw the dim outlines of
one of the warriors on his knees, striking the flint and steel, such as
the pioneers, and, indeed, all persons, used in those days. The little
lines of sparks shot back and forth, as they do upon the swiftly
revolving emery wheel when the metal is pressed against it, and in a
twinkling a tiny blaze was creeping among the little pile of leaves
toward the top. The twist of flame darted in and out like the crimson
tongue of some serpent, until it reached the air above, and in a very
few minutes a roaring camp fire was under full headway.

Jack saw that it had been kindled against the shaggy bark of an oak
tree, which swept upward like a sealed chimney until lost in the gloom
above. The gleam of water a short distance off made known what he had
not suspected; a stream--only a few inches in depth and breadth--wound
by the spot, without giving forth the slightest ripple. Water, it may be
said, is indispensable to such an encampment, and a party of aborigines
scarcely ever halts at night without being near it.

As the glow of the fire spread, it fell upon the figures of the
warriors, who looked grim and uncanny. Jack folded his arms and stood in
the full glow, as though seeking a bath in the firelight. But for his
recent experience, he might have been tempted to make a dash for
liberty; but his clothing was still wet from that furious essay, and he
was clearly of the opinion that t