t to take him there as they took me. After Hay-uta, as I believe you
call your friend, left, they made up their minds that it wasn't of any
use to bother with poor Otto, and so they tomahawked or shot him."

Having given his theory, Jack Carleton turned toward the young Shawanoe
for his comment, but he sat looking intently in the fire and remained
silent. Resolved that he should say something on the painful subject,
Jack touched his arm.

"Deerfoot, do you think I am right?"

The Indian looked in his face and still mute, nodded his head to signify
he agreed with him.

"Poor Otto," added Jack with a sigh, "I wonder how his father and mother
will feel when they learn that their boy will never come back."

"They will mourn because the horse was not found," was the
characteristic remark of Deerfoot.

"You are right," exclaimed Jack, with a flash of the eye; "if old Jacob
Relstaub could get his horse, I believe he and his wife would go on and
smoke their pipes with as much piggish enjoyment as before, caring
nothing for their only child. How different my mother!" he added in a
softer voice: "she would give her life to save mine, as I would give
mine to keep trouble from her. I say, Deerfoot, Otto and I were a couple
of fools to start out to hunt a horse that had been lost so many days
before and of which we hadn't the slightest trace--don't you think so?"

The young Shawanoe once more turned and looked in his face with a
mournful expression, and nodded his head with more emphasis than before.

"I knew you would agree with me," assented Jack, "though, to tell the
truth, I had very little hope myself that we would ever get sight of
the animal, but old Jacob Relstaub really drove Otto out of his house
and compelled him to go off on the wild goose hunt. I couldn't let him
go alone and, with mother's consent, I kept him company."

"My brother pleased the Great Spirit, and Deerfoot will pray that he
shall ever act so that the Great Spirit will smile on him."

"I shall most certainly try to do so," said Jack with a resolute shake
of his head: "He has shown me a hundred-fold more mercies than I deserve
and I mean to prove that I have some gratitude in me."

The conversation went on in this fashion until the evening was far
along, when Jack lay down near the fire, intending to sleep for the rest
of the night. Deerfoot assured him there was no danger and as was his
custom, the young Shawanoe brought forth his Bible to spend