with any of her own tribe. The girl cast her eyes on the
earth in silence; a dark cloud seemed to gather over her face.

"If they should prove to be any of your father's people, or a friendly
tribe, would you go away with them?" he again repeated, to which she
solemnly replied,

"Indiana has no father, no tribe, no people; no blood of her father's
warms the heart of any man, woman or child, saving myself alone; but
Indiana is a brave, and the daughter of a brave, and will not shrink
from danger: her heart is warm; red blood flows warm here," and she laid
her hand on her heart. Then lifting up her hand, she said with slow but
impassioned tone, "They left not one drop of living blood to flow in
any veins but these," and her eyes were raised, and her arms stretched
upwards towards heaven, as though calling down vengeance on the
murderers of her father's house.

"My father was a Mohawk, the son of a great chief, who owned these
hunting-grounds far as your eye can see to the rising and setting sun,
along the big waters of the big lakes; but the Ojebwas, a portion of the
Chippewa nation, by treachery cut off my father's people by hundreds in
cold blood, when they were defenceless and at rest. It was a bloody day
and a bloody deed."

Instead of hiding herself, as Hector and Louis strongly advised the
young Mohawk to do, she preferred remaining as a scout, she said, under
the cover of the bushes on the edge of the steep that overlooked
the lake, to watch their movements. She told Hector to be under no
apprehension if the Indians came to the hut; not to attempt to conceal
themselves, but offer them food to eat and water to drink. "If they come
to the house and find you away, they will take your stores and burn your
roof, suspecting that you are afraid to meet them openly; but they will
not harm you if you meet them with open hand and fearless brow: if they
eat of your bread, they will not harm you; me they would kill by a
cruel death--the war-knife is in their heart against the daughter of the
_brave_."

The boys thought Indiana's advice good, and they felt no fear for
themselves, only for Catharine, whom they counselled to remain in the
shanty with Wolfe.

The Indians seemed intent only on the sport which they had come
to enjoy, seeming in high glee, and as far as they could see quite
peaceably disposed; every night they returned to the camp on the north
side, and the boys could see their fires gleaming among the trees