ent into camp. The poor fellow lay ill all
night, and on the morrow was so pale and weak, that his captors believed
he could not live many hours. Still they stayed in the neighborhood
until noon, when they abandoned him to his fate. Believing he would not
survive more than a few hours, Lone Bear and another warrior placed his
gun beside him, covered most of his body with leaves, laid his hat over
his face, and composed his limbs, as if for the grave. Otto seemed about
to die, and showed no interest in the last sad rites, his eyes being
closed when they departed.

Having obtained these particulars, Deerfoot learned another surprising
fact--the point where Otto was abandoned to die, instead of being a long
distance to the east, was full three days' journey in the opposite
direction. That is to say, the Pawnees, after parting with the lad, had
doubled on their own trail and were now the distance named from where it
was supposed he had died.

The cause for this retrogression was the love of migratory life which is
characteristic of the American race. The Pawnee villages, as I have
stated, lay a long ways to the north-west, but among the party that had
been on the long tramp, was a strong minority in favor of moving their
town to the neighborhood of the river across which we have seen friends
and foes pass so frequently. It abounded with game, had plenty of water,
numerous fish, and its surface was undulating enough to suit their
fancy. All this, no doubt, could be found in other places nearer home,
but the stretch of open land which followed one side of the stream for a
considerable distance, it may be said, was the deciding inducement. It
was the ideal of a site for an aboriginal metropolis, for there was just
enough land to put under cultivation to meet their simple wants.

The attractions of the locality formed the principal theme of
discussion, until, when three days' journey from the river, the minority
had become the majority, and it was decided to return and make a more
thorough examination of the neighborhood. They were thus engaged, in
their lazy fashion, when Deerfoot, Hay-uta and Jack Carleton overtook
them, and the incidents already told followed.

By the time all this became known, the young Shawanoe felt that Lone
Bear had nothing more to tell him. Otto Relstaub, if alive, was to be
searched for many miles further toward the Rocky Mountains, though, if
he was as ill as was represented, he must have succumbe