Great was the astonishment and anger of the Indians.
Soon they discovered the slit in the side of the lodge where the keen-edged knife had opened a passage to the air.
The savages were utterly astounded. Boone had been carefully and thoroughly searched; all his weapons taken from him, and yet it was plain that he had contrived to free himself from his bonds and cut his way out of the lodge.
A moment’s examination, however, convinced Ke-ne-ha-ha that the bonds that had bound the hunter had been cut by some other hand than his own.
Then the Indians passed through the hole cut in the wigwam, and outside in the soft earth searched for traces of the prisoner’s footsteps.
These they soon found.
The soft earth of the bank of the river was as yielding as wax, and by the clear light of the moonbeams the Indians discovered the mark of two different footprints. The first they came to was evidently made by the broad moccasin of Boone; but the second was a puzzle. It was also the print of a moccasin, but the toes turned inward like the footprint of an Indian.
“The pale-face had some white-hearted Indian, lurking like a snake within the thicket, who has aided him to escape,” said Ke-ne-ha-ha, in anger.
A cry of wonder from the Black Cloud attracted the attention of all.
The chief, a little ahead of the rest of the party, had been examining the bank of the river, which, there, from the level of the stream, was about as high as a man’s waist.