undergrowth, but by and by all his troubles and doubts floated away. The
note of the wind was soothing, and the huge roots sheltered him. His
eyelids drooped, a singular feeling of peace and ease crept over him, and
he was asleep.

It was yet the intense darkness of early night, and the outline of his
figure was lost between the giant roots, but after a while a silver moon
brought a gray tint to the skies, and the black bank over the forest began
to thin and lighten. Then two figures, hideous in paint, crept from the
undergrowth, and stared at the sleeping boy with pitiless eyes.

Paul slept on, and mercifully knew nothing of his danger; yet it would
have been hard to find in the world two pairs of eyes that contained more
savagery than those now gazing upon him. Their owners crept nearer,
looking with fierce joy through the darkness at the sleeping boy who was
so certainly their prey. Their code contained nothing that taught them to
spare a foe, and this youth. In the van of the white invasion, was the
worst of foes.

The boy still slept, and his slumber was deep, sweet, and dreamless. No
warning came to him while the savage eyes, bright with cruel fire, crept
closer and closer, and the merciful darkness, coming again, tried to close
down and hide the approaching tragedy of the forest.

Paul returned with a jerk from his peaceful heaven. Hands and feet were
seized suddenly and pinned to the earth so tightly that he could not move,
and he gazed up at two hideous, painted faces, very near to his own, and
full of menace. The boy's heart turned for a moment to water. He saw at
once, through his vivid and powerful imagination, all the terrors of his
position, and in the same instant he leaped forward also to the future,