pread apart, and touched them one after the other with the
forefinger of the right, until he had checked off four, thereby
indicating that four days or suns had elapsed since he had seen Otto
Relstaub.

"What tribe bought him from the Pawnees?"

"The pale-face went with no warriors."

"With whom did he go?"

"The pale-face was in the woods alone."

This was astonishing information, for it implied that Otto, like Jack,
had managed to escape from his captors; such, however, was not the case.

Deerfoot repressed all sign of deep interest as he plied Lone Bear with
questions.

"Did the pale-face run away when the skies were dark, or was it when the
sun was in the sky?"

"The sun was so high that when Lone Bear walked in the clearing it cast
no shadow," replied the Pawnee, thereby signifying that Otto Relstaub
disappeared at high noon. As it was clear that even the acute Deerfoot
did not grasp the full story, Lone Bear attested his sincerity by
adding:

"The youth whose face was pale became ill; he could not walk; the
Pawnees lingered hours, hunting and fishing; but his face was white like
the snow; he tried to rise, but fell down like a pappoose when its eyes
first look on the day. Red Wolf raised his tomahawk to slay him, but
Lone Bear stayed his arm. The Pawnees marched on and the pale-face lay
on the leaves, white and ready to die."

There at last was the practical solution of the mystery. The Pawnees had
not bartered off Otto with any other tribe, but were journeying homeward
with him when he fell ill. His captors had tarried near him for a time,
but instead of recovering he had grown weaker, until one of the Indians
proposed to end the trouble by sinking his tomahawk in his brain. He had
been prevented from doing so, and then the warriors had quietly moved
on, leaving the poor youth to die alone unattended in the wilderness.

But had he in reality perished? That was the question which was to be
answered, but in order to do so, it was necessary for Deerfoot to gain
all the information he could from Lone Bear, who, in fact, was the only
one that could give it. He therefore plied him with questions, until
nothing more was left to tell. His revelation was pitiful indeed.

Without any sense of the pathetic side of the narrative, Lone Bear
repeated his account of how, while they were moving at a leisurely pace,
Otto fell ill. It happened to be late in the afternoon, and as the spot
was favorable, the company w