withered monk to see those two healthy, plump little maidens in the
flickering fire light, their garments loosened, their eyes glowing,
their cheeks and lips in hue like the cherry, eating slice after
slice of bread and meat, and draining cup after cup of the fragrant
tea.

"Now Julie," Annette said rising, after the precious maiden had
eaten enough to make some miserable philosopher ill for a week of
dyspepsia, "I shall creep out and make a reconnaissance." And
buckling on her belt, with its large bright-bladed knife, and her
ready revolver, she went away softly and cunning as a cat. The very
field-mouse could have known nothing of her coming till her sweet
foot was upon its head: and when she came in sight of the hostile
camp fire with the dull scarlet glow that the mass of dying embers
threw out, she stooped so low that a spectator near by would have
imagined that the dark thing moving across the level was a prairie
dog.

At last she was at the very edge of the bluff, and was peering
between the branches at the party, about the flight of an arrow
within. Captain Stephens was there, full in the light, his arms and
legs fast bound, and tied to a sturdy white oak tree. Near a poplar,
a few paces distant, lay his comrade, likewise bound and fastened to
a tree. Most of the Indians were asleep; the remainder lolled about,
showing no evidence of keeping vigil. Jean she could not perceive;
and she believed, and was no doubt right, that he was sleeping.

"It is well," the maiden ejaculated in a little whisper; and she
returned swiftly and noiselessly as a shadow to her own camp fire.