y best to make Ogallah and the others think I wasn't anxious to
leave, but the work was all thrown away. These people are not fools, and
no matter how well I may act, they know of a surety that the whole
prayer of my life is to part company with them."

The conclusion reached by Jack was common sense, though the
story-writers sometimes make it appear that the keen minded American
Indian may be duped in that transparent fashion. The utmost that Jack
Carleton could hope to do was to show his captors that, while he longed
to return to his friends, he saw no means of doing so, and therefore
was not likely to make the attempt. Such he resolved would be his
course.

The boy was fatigued in mind and body, and, when he bowed his head in
prayer (much to the astonishment of Ogallah and his squaw), and lay down
on the bison robe, he sank into a refreshing slumber, from which he did
not awake until morning, and then, when he did so, he came to his senses
with a yell that almost raised the roof.

The Sauks, like all their race, were extremely fond of dogs, and the
mongrel curs seemed to be everywhere. Jack had noticed them trotting
through the village, playing with the children and basking in the sun. A
number sniffed at his heels, as he passed by with Ogallah, but did not
offer to disturb him.

The chief was the owner of a mangy cur, which seemed to have been off on
some private business of his own, when his master returned, inasmuch as
he did not put in an appearance until early the following morning, when
he trotted sideways up to the lodge and entered, as he could readily do,
inasmuch as the "latch string was always out." The canine was quick to
notice the stranger lying on the bison skin with his eyes closed and his
mouth open. With an angry growl he trotted in the same sidelong fashion
across the space, and pushing his nose under Jack's legs gave him a
smart bite, just below the knee, as though he meant to devour him, and
concluded that was the best part of his anatomy on which to make a
beginning.

The foregoing will explain why Jack Carleton awoke with a yell and
stared around him for an explanation of the insult. The vigor of his
kicks, and the resonant nature of his cries, filled the dog with a
panic, and he skurried out of the lodge with his tail between his legs,
and cast affrighted glances behind him.

"Confound the cur," muttered Jack, rubbing the injured limb, "is that
the style of these dogs when a stranger ca