Ralph raised his gun, and
closed his eye as the sight of the weapon sought the warrior's breast.
"Don't shoot, and you will be treated friendly," cried the savage in
good English. "So long as I live," said Ralph, "I'll never put faith
again in an Indian's word." The gun went off, and the savage, with an
unearthly cry, bounded high in the air, and fell upon his face a corpse.
A scream, as if ten thousand furies had been suddenly turned loose upon
the earth, rang around us; and ere we could start ten steps on our
flight, we were seized by our savage foes, and, like the light barque
when borne on the surface of the angry waves, were we borne, equally
endangered, upon the shoulders of these maddened men. We were thrown
upon the earth, our hands and feet were bound till the cords were almost
hidden in the flesh; and then, with the fury of madmen, they commenced
beating us with clubs, when another chief, who appeared to be of higher
standing than the one who had just lost his life, rushed into the crowd,
hurling the excited warriors to the right and left in his progress, and
mounting upon a log he harangued them for a few moments with a loud
voice. They at once desisted, perhaps reconciled by the prospect of soon
seeing us burnt at the stake.
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