red, for, besides furnishing them with the much-needed
nourishment, it was a strong proof of the indifference, if not the
good-will of their captors. Had they felt ill inclined toward the boys,
they would not have shown such kindness toward them.

"When you are in Rome, do as the Romans do," laughed Jack, seating
himself on the fallen tree and devouring the half-cooked meat with the
gusto of those around him. Indeed he and Otto had eaten many a time in a
similar style, and few persons find difficulty in making savages of
themselves in every respect, whenever the inclination so to do takes
possession of them.

The boys would have relished double the amount of food, but enough had
been given to remove all discomfort, and they would have found it hard
to describe the thorough enjoyment the lunch imparted.

But now that the troublesome question was answered, the thought of the
youths naturally turned to the immediate future. Had these Indians
formed any purpose respecting their prisoners? If so, what was it likely
to be? Did they intend to kill them with rifle, tomahawk, or knife? Or
would they be taken away captives? Did the red men belong to the Osage
tribe of Indians, or was theirs some fiercer or milder totem from a
distant part of the country?

It is a fact that among many of the early settlements in Missouri and
other Western States, the warriors who were occasionally encountered in
the forests, or who fired from the cover of the trees, belonged to
tribes whose hunting-grounds were many leagues away. They were not
Shawanoe, Huron, Pottawatomie, Osage, Miami, Delaware, Illinois,
Kickapoo, or Winnebago. Sometimes a veteran trapper recognized the dress
and general appearance that he had noted among the red men to the
northward, and far beyond the Assiniboine; others who had ventured
hundreds of miles to the westward, remembered exchanging shots with
similar dusky warriors on the slopes of the Rocky Mountains.

Indeed it cannot be questioned that the American race not only produced
warriors, orators, and magnificent leaders, but it had its travelers and
explorers--the name being accepted in its restricted meaning.

More than once Jack had wondered whether this party had not come from a
long distance in the interior, perhaps hundreds of miles, and that
having completed the errand on which they had journeyed so far, were now
on their return.

"If this is so," he said to Otto, when they observed the party making
prep