consciousness and sank down into the pool.

Almost before she had disappeared beneath the water Pocahontas had
sprung after her, and groping about on the fine smooth sand of the
bottom, she caught hold of her sister and brought her to the surface.

Then, with the aid of the terrified maidens, she lifted her up on the
bank, the blood flowing freely from a cut on her head. After vainly
trying to staunch the wound with damp moss, Pocahontas commanded:

"Hasten as though the Iroquois were coming, and cut me some strong
branches."

They obeyed her, hurriedly throwing their skirts about them, and then
with their stone knives severed branches and tied them together with
deer thongs which they tore from the fringe of their girdles. On top of
these they placed leafy branches and lifted the unconscious Cleopatra on
to this improvised stretcher. In spite of their remonstrances,
Pocahontas insisted upon taking one end of it, while the strongest two
of her playmates bore the other.

Through the woods they walked, as silent now as they had been noisy
before, but Pocahontas thought her heart-beats sounded as loud as the
war drums of the Pamunkeys.

They were still distant many minutes' walk to the village when they
caught sight of Pochins, a medicine man famous among many tribes for his
powerful manitou, his guardian spirit, which enabled him to communicate
with the manitous of the spirit world.