rley silenced
him with a gesture and gravely continued.

"No, these judges were not fools to believe that a whole people should
be judged by the crimes of one, or a few of its race. Among the
paleface race were brother, squaw, and father murderers, in great
numbers, not because the white race is worse than the red, but because
they exceed the red men in number as the leaves exceed the trunks of
the tree."

"With the bad Indian, serving out a lifetime of work and exile, were
eleven white men just as bad. When those that watched them had their
eyes turned away, the twelve plotted. One night they rose up and
murdered the guards, took their guns and ponies, and, under the lead of
the bad Indian, came as the crow flies for here, where were camped
myself and three companions, seeking only the bird that bears plumes
upon its back. The balance you know," he concluded, gravely. "As
brother to brother, should the Seminoles be judged by the slayer of
whites, or the white hunters by lawless murderers whose color is the
same as theirs?"

During Charley's short argument, the suspicion had fled from the young
chieftain's face. At the conclusion, he drew himself up proudly erect
and extending his hand spoke the one English word he knew that stood
with him for friendship and confidence,--"How."

"How," said Charley cheerfully, giving the offered hand a hearty shake.
"Now let's get outside and take a look. As soon as they have finished
with your followers, I expect the bad men to come down upon us."

Short as had been the time they had spent in the lean-to, a great
change had taken place at the scene of the battle. The firing had
ceased from all the canoes but one, and even as they looked, a rifle
cracked, the canoe's occupant half rose, then crashed down over its
side, and the last Seminole rifle was silenced.

The pall of smoke had drifted away from the point, revealing a terrible
sight, twenty-nine canoes or dugouts drifted on the quiet water at the
mercy of wind or current, some floated bottom upward, others' sides
were punctured and splintered with innumerable bullets. Here and there
was one splotched and spotted with the crimson life-blood of its heroic
defender. Not a sign of life was visible amongst the little squadron.
As Charley looked, one of the convicts ventured out from his place of
concealment and with a long branch, drew the nearest canoe in to shore.
With a coil of rope in one hand, he jumped in and shov