e alarming fact remained,
that he was seriously ill and such exposure was almost certain to drive
him delirious, with the certainty of death to follow very speedily.

Though he took such a gloomy view of his own position among the Sauks
(whose tribal name, of course, he had not yet learned), he was not
without a certain degree of hope. He had suffered no harm thus far and
it is always the unexpected which happens. While he had declared to
himself that Ogallah was simply training him for the torture, as it may
be expressed, yet it might be the chieftain being without children,
meant to adopt him as a son. If such was his intention, manifestly, the
best thing for Jack to do was to lie still and prayerfully await the
issue of events. No doubt if you or I were in his sad predicament, that
is the course that would have been followed, but Jack could not bring
himself to submit to such inactivity when the prospect of liberty was
before him. Allowance, too, must be made for the condition of the boy.
He was scarcely himself, when, compressing his lips, he muttered,

"I won't stay here! They mean to kill me and I may as well die in the
woods! I will take my gun and go out in the night and storm, and trust
in God to befriend me as He has always done."

Aye, so He had; and so He will always befriend us, if we but use our
opportunities and fly not in His face.

Carefully he rose to his feet, and, gathering the bison robe around his
fevered frame, glanced at the two unconscious figures, and then at the
form of his rifle leaning against the side of the lodge and dimly
revealed in the flickering firelight.

As he stepped forward to recover his gun, everything in the room swam
before his eyes, a million bees seemed to be humming in his brain, and,
clutching the air in a vague way, he sank back on his couch with a
groan, which awakened Ogallah and his squaw. The chief came to the
sitting position with a surprising quickness, while the wife opened her
eyes and glared through the dim firelight at the figure. The dog
slumbered on.

Ogallah seeing that it was only the captive who was probably dying, lay
back again on the bare earth and resumed his sleep. The woman watched
the lad for several minutes as if she felt some interest in learning
whether a pale face passed away in the same manner as one of her own
race. Inasmuch as the sick boy was so long in settling the question, she
closed her eyes and awaited a more convenient season.