rench, we had come to fight beside our brothers. He asked a few
questions, and then passed on. But I could see the varmin was not
satisfied, though, in course, he pretended to be glad to welcome us
back to the tribe. So we hung about the camp for another half hour, and
then made a sweep before we came out here. I didn't look round, but
Jonathan stooped, as if the lace of his moccasin had come undone, and
managed to look back, but, in course, he didn't see anything."

"Then you have no reason to believe you are followed, Nat?"

"Don't I tell you I have every reason?" Nat said. "If that redskin, the
Owl, has got any suspicion--and suspicion you may be sure he's got--he
won't rest till he's cleared the matter up. He is after us, sure
enough."

"Then had we not better make for the canoe at full speed?"

"No," Nat said. "If they are behind us, they will be watching our
trail; and if they see we change our pace, they will be after us like a
pack of wolves; while, as long as we walk slowly and carelessly, they
will let us go. If it were dark, we might make a run for it, but there
ain't no chance at present. If we took to the lake, we should have a
hundred canoes after us, while the woods are full of Indians, and a
whoop of the Owl would bring a hundred of them down onto our track."

"Why shouldn't the Owl have denounced you at once, if he suspected
you?" James asked.

"Because it ain't redskin nature to do anything, till you are sure,"
the scout replied. "There is nothing a redskin hates so much as to be
wrong, and he would rather wait, for weeks, to make sure of a thing,
than run the risk of making a mistake. I don't suppose he takes us for
whites. He expects we belong to some other tribe, come in as spies."

"Then what are you thinking of doing?" James asked.

"We will go on a bit further," Nat said, "in hopes of coming across
some stream, where we may hide our trail. If we can't find that, we
will sit down, before long, and eat as if we was careless and in no
hurry."

For a time, they walked on in silence.

"Do you think they are close to us?" James asked, presently.

"Not far away," the scout said carelessly. "So long as they see we
ain't hurrying, they will go easy. They will know, by this time, that
we have a white man with us, and, like enough, the Owl will have sent
back for one or two more of his warriors. Likely enough, he only took
one with him, at first, seeing we were but two, and that he reckoned on