in the direction that had been taken by the corporal and
Weston. Great, however, was the surprise of Collins, then
a little in advance, when, on nearing the spot where the
boat lay moored, he beheld, not those of who they were
in search, but a naked, and hideously painted savage, in
the very act of untying the rope by which the skiff was
fastened to the knotted and projecting root of the tree.
Sensible that there was impending danger, although he
knew not of what precise kind, inasmuch as there was no
Reason to apprehend anything hostile from the Indians,
with--all of whom around the fort, they had always been
on friendly terms, he sprang forward to arrest the
movement. But the distance was several rods, and the
savage, alarmed by the rustling made among the foliage
and brushwood in his rear, now put his shoulder to the
boat, and, in the next instant would have had it far
across this stream, had not a hand suddenly protruded
from beneath the hollow clump of earth on which the tree
grew, grasped him firmly by the ankle, even while in the
act of springing into the forcibly impelled skiff. In
a moment or two, he grappled tightly with his hands upon
the bow of the boat, but, finding the pressure on his
imprisoned limb too great for resistance, he relinquished
his hold, falling upon his face in the water, from which
he was dragged, although without violence, by Corporal
Nixon, who had emerged from his hiding-place.

When the Indian was suffered to rise, there was a
threatening expression on his countenance, which, not
even the number of those by whom he was now surrounded