Suddenly Tasquanto, seeming to awake as from a dream, started down the hill-side towards the canoe, and Nahma followed him. Both knew why they fled. For some unexplained reason their expected triumph had resulted in a dismal failure. This had laid them open to the ridicule that an Indian finds especially hard to bear, and they had no wish to be questioned concerning what had just taken place.
The spectators of their recent remarkable performance, curious to see what they would do next, followed them so closely that, in order to escape, our lads were forced to run. Gaining their canoe, they shoved it off and leaped in as the foremost of their pursuers reached the water's edge. Without heeding the many invitations to return that quickly became threatening commands, Nahma and Tasquanto plied their paddles with such diligence that they were quickly beyond arrow range; and, speeding past the village without a pause, they were soon lost to sight of its puzzled inhabitants. Not until they were some miles farther down the river was a word exchanged between the young men. Then, as Nahma drew in his paddle and paused for breath, he remarked,—
"The thunder-stick of the white man is bad medicine for bow-and-arrow people."
"Yes," replied Tasquanto, mournfully, "it seems that we have much to learn."
While in camp that night discussing the humiliating events of the day they were joined by a solitary hunter who was on his way up the river. After a guarded interchange of questions and answers, during which neither party learned anything definite concerning the other, the stranger told them of certain white men who were trading at the mouth of the Penobscot, and advised them to carry their furs to that market.
"Are they Française?" asked Nahma, who was determined never again to fall within the power of those who had so cruelly imprisoned him.
"No," was the reply, "they are of a people who call themselves 'Yengeese' and who make war on the white-coats."
"Have they thunder-sticks?" asked Tasquanto.
"In plenty."
"Then let us go to them. If we accomplish nothing else we may learn the white man's secret, and so shall our shame be wiped out."