he breast
of all. Had Jack shown himself a coward, they might have treated him as
they often did such captives; but the brave young fellow was in no
danger, at least for the present.

The occurrence took but a fraction of the time that has been occupied in
the telling, and Jack was only given opportunity to replace the knife,
when his captors, arranging themselves so as to surround him, resumed
their march to the westward. Precisely at the same instant the other
half of the company did the same in the other direction, and once more
Otto Relstaub called out:

"Good-by, Jack! good-by to you!"

"Good-by, my friend!" shouted Jack, his heart filled with a deep
misgiving over the singular event. "Keep up a good heart, though there's
no telling whether we shall ever meet again."

"If I get home before you gets dere I will tell Colonel Martin, and
we'll follow you to the Rocky Mountains----"

Even in that serious moment Jack Carleton broke into laughter when he
saw that the usual fortune of Otto clung to him. His foot caught in
some obstruction, and while in the act of waving his hand and exchanging
greetings with his friend, he stumbled forward and went down. Clambering
to his feet he turned to complete his words, but his captors seemed to
have lost patience on account of the delay. One seized his right and
another his left arm and began walking him rapidly off. The last sight
which Jack gained of the fellow showed him between two Indians, who were
hurrying him along with such vigor that his head rose and sank with each
unwilling footstep, as though he was alternately lifted from and pressed
down to the ground. A few seconds later and the intervening trees hid
him from sight.

It would have been difficult for Jack Carleton to describe his varied
emotions when forced to admit the fact that he was an actual prisoner
among a band of wandering Indians. The memorable journey from Kentucky
into Louisiana had been attended by many stirring experiences, and more
than once every avenue of escape seemed to be closed, but, now for the
first time, he found himself a captive within a few miles of his own
home.

Whither would these red men take him? Did they mean to hold him a
permanent captive, or, as is often the case with their race, would they
put him to torture and finally to death? The settlements of Kentucky and
Ohio were crimsoned with the deeds of the red men, and, though some
tribes were less warlike than others, it was n