had heard enough of Indian warfare to feel that any consideration they
might show their prisoners at first was often but a proof that they
were reserving them for the greatest cruelties afterward.

Long before daylight the next morning, the march was resumed, in the
same manner as on the previous day; and, indeed, for three or four days
it was continued over a country dense with cedar thicket, and becoming
rougher and more rocky as they journeyed on. At last, after traveling
westward for a distance of ever a hundred miles--as nearly as Tom could
estimate--they saw, afar, rising from the lowlands, the smoke of an
Indian encampment.

Some one evidently had been on the look-out for them. Before they
reached the spot, they were welcomed with loud whoops and yells.
Presently the entire community, as it seemed, turned out to receive
them--hundreds of savages, men, women, and children--who, when they saw
the prisoners, pierced the air with wild shouts of joy.

The men were painted in every conceivable way, with hideous daubs of
color upon their limbs and faces, or tattooed so as to look more fearful
still; their heads were closely shaved, leaving only a lock on the
crown, called the scalp-lock, which was twisted up so as to hold tufts
of brilliant feathers. The women, scarcely less hideous than the men
(excepting here and there a young maiden, the joy of her tribe,
standing apart from the rest), crowded fiercely about, and the children,
naked and dirty, whooped and yelled like so many imps.

The scene was certainly not likely to inspire the prisoners with any
keen sense of security. Indeed, Tom expected instant death at their
hands. As for Rudolph and Kitty, the poor little creatures were