to bind
us, and that gives us at least a fighting chance."

"When shall we slip out?"

"Not before about three in the morning. That is the most nearly
silent hour, and if the heathenish curs let us alone we may get
away."

Fortune seemed to favor the two. The moon did not come out,
and the promise of a dark night was fulfilled. An unusual
stillness was over the village. It seemed that everybody slept.
Dick and Albert waited through long, long hours. Dick had
nothing by which to reckon time, but he believed that he could
calculate fairly well by guess, and once, when he thought it was
fully midnight, he peeped out at the door of the lodge. Pine
Tree was there, leasing against a sapling, but his attitude
showed laziness and a lack of vigilance. It might be that,
feeling little need of watching, he slept on his feet. Dick
devoutly hoped so. He waited at least two hours longer, and
again peeped out. The attitude of Pine Tree had not changed.
It must certainly be sleep that held him, and Dick and Albert
prepared to go forth. They had no arms, and could trust only
to silence and speed.

Dick was the first outside, and stood in the shadow of the lodge
until Albert joined him. There they paused to choose a way among
the lodges and to make a further inspection of sleeping
Pine Tree.

The quiet of the village was not broken. The lodges stretched
away in dusky rows and then were lost in darkness. This promised
well, and their eyes came back to Pine Tree, who was still
sleeping. Then Dick became conscious of a beam of light, or
rather two beams. These beams shot straight from the open eyes
of Pine Tree, who was not asleep at all. The next instant Pine
Tree opened his mouth, uttered a yell that was amazingly loud and
piercing, and leaped straight for the two boys.

As neither Dick nor Albert had arms, they could do nothing but
run, and they fled between the lodges at great speed, Pine Tree
hot upon their heels. It amazed Dick to find that the whole
population of a big town could awake so quickly. Warriors,
squaws, and children swarmed from the lodges and fell upon him
and Albert in a mass. He could only see in the darkness that
Albert had been seized and dragged away, but he knew that two
uncommonly strong old squaws had him by the hair, three
half-grown boys were clinging to his legs, and a powerful
warrior laid hold of his right shoulder. He deemed it wisest
in such a position to yield as quickly