engage in a scrimmage with the hunters and
trappers, yet they preferred those of their own race above all others.
No Sioux or Iroquois could have approached within hundreds of miles
without the certainty of an encounter with the warlike Sauks.

The Sauk party which appeared so close to the settlement of Martinsville
had been out for several weeks looking for "game" in the form of Sioux,
who lived far to the northward. They had found some of it too, and were
returning home in a leisurely manner. They took a careful survey of the
settlement, and even discussed the wisdom of making an attack on it; but
they saw it could not be destroyed by so small a force, and though they
might have shot several of the settlers before they could know their
danger, they decided to pass on without making any demonstration at
all.

When Jack Carleton and Otto Relstaub walked up to the party, it was no
more than natural that they should be made prisoners. No particular
reason can be assigned for the separation of the party, one division of
which took Jack and the other Otto, except that a survey of the land
passed over could be better made by that means. However, this point will
be dwelt upon more fully in another place.

Probably no person ever played the part of captive among a tribe of
savages without devoting most of his thoughts to the question of escape.
It is inevitable that he should do so, for the fate is so painful in
every respect that, but for the hope, one would be ready to lie down and
die.

Jack had turned the question over and over in his mind, and had done his
utmost to give his captors the slip while on the road, but misfortune
attended every venture, and at last he found himself in the lodge of the
chieftain Ogallah himself, where it looked as if he was likely to remain
indefinitely.

"Well, this beats everything," he exclaimed, after finishing the meal
and seating himself at the side of the lodge, so as to be out of the way
of the housewife, as she moved back and forth and here and there while
attending to her duties; "I've come a long distance through the woods,
and it'll take some time to find my way back to Martinsville, after I
once make a start."

He could not persuade himself that his captivity might last for months
and possibly for years. He was confident that no matter how vigilant the
watch maintained, he would gain a chance to give the Indians the slip
within two or three days at the furthest.

"I did m