“Oh, good Mr. Injin, I love you ’most to death. Please don’t hurt me! Oh, good Mr. Injin, please don’t hurt a feller like me!”
“What do here?”
“Please don’t hurt me. I come along, good Mr. Injin jes’ to keep de rest from hurtin’ you. You can ax any of ’em if I didn’t.”
What would have been the ultimate result of all this it is impossible to say, but there can be little doubt but that the negro would have been tomahawked had not a peculiar whoop attracted the attention of the Indian. Without further noticing the supplicant he leaped away in the woods, uttering a reply to the signal, and disappeared almost instantly.
Pompey took advantage of this opportunity. He left that part of the neighborhood as fast as he could travel, and continued walking all night.
The whole distance back to the settlement was made alone, without encountering a single human being. A kind Providence watched over the poor fellow’s footsteps. The first man he saw was the sentinel of the town, who discharged his gun at him, excusing himself on the plea that he was so dark he thought it was night itself, and fired his gun into it to clean out the barrel.
CHAPTER III.
THE RENEGADE.
The renegade stooped and narrowly examined the marks which his dog had made in searching for the new trail, but as he had been to the spring once or twice, and had gone in many other directions beside the one toward Kingman’s retreat, it was impossible to follow up the right one.
It was now getting dark rapidly. Already the shadows of the wood were growing darker each moment, and blending together.
The renegade moved cautiously about, peering at each spot which he judged possible to contain a human being.