rriors helping him. There were the footprints
of the delicate moccasins in plain sight, showing where he had leaped
clear from the ground, but not the faintest impression was visible
either to the right or left of the spot. Inasmuch as the fugitive could
not have fled in either direction without leaving a trail, and the
closest search failed to show any thing of the kind, the conclusion was
inevitable that no such flight had taken place.

Besides--how came Wimmoroo to forget it?--all caught the splash of the
body as it dropped in the water. As might be expected witnesses were not
wanting to declare they had seen the spray fly upward, and had caught
sight of the eagle feathers in the crown of Deerfoot as he swam for the
other side.

All which being so, the question came back again where could Deerfoot
be?

It is not often that a group of red men are so at their wit's end as
were the Pawnees. They stood looking about them, silent and bewildered.
Wimmoroo took a sly glance at the tree tops as though he half expected
to see the missing Shawanoe perched in the branches.

But among those red men was one at least with quick intelligence. He was
the last to approach the stream from the side toward which Deerfoot
leaped. He had not yet spoken, but when told the facts, he glanced here
and there, so as to take in all the points, and it was not long before a
suspicion of the truth dawned upon him.

Several facts, which were patent to the others, took connection in his
mind. Let me name one or two--Deerfoot possessed a fleetness which no
Pawnee could equal; he was seen to run toward the stream with the utmost
speed of which he was capable; he was observed to make the jump, and the
creek itself was a little more than twenty feet in width. The
conclusion, therefore, was certain--he had bounded across.

The leap, while a great one, was not beyond the attainment of the Pawnee
himself, who was studying the question. He was sure that with a running
start he could clear the water, though he could do no more. Still there
were no footprints on the margin that could have been made by the
fugitive; but, recalling the prodigious activity of the fugitive, the
Pawnee scrutinized the ground further back. He had done so only a half
minute when he discovered the truth. Making it known to the others, they
refused for a minute or two to believe him, but the proof was before
their eyes and they disputed no longer.

The young Shawanoe, finding t