After a short talk they decided to set the men free and leave them there.
“We be heap safe, they got no gun and we got Sicum,” the Indian declared after a thorough search had failed to reveal any firearms in the cabin.
“You follow us an’ Sicum kill you heap quick,” Kernertok warned them as he cut the rope which bound the smaller Frenchman’s hands together.
Leaving him to free his feet and to untie Pierre, they started for Kernertok’s cabin which he told Jack was about twenty miles to the southwest.
CHAPTER XIV.
JACQUES’ SECRET. WHAT IS IT?
Bob slowly and painfully groped his way back to consciousness. It seemed as though his head was about twice its natural size and it ached with a dull heavy pain. With the return of his senses remembrance gradually drifted back and he slowly opened his eyes. Now he remembered opening the door and wondering if anyone was in the room. As he carefully felt of the back of his head a lump nearly the size of a hen’s egg thoroughly convinced him that there had been.
“You feel better, oui?”
He turned his head at the question and saw that Jacques was standing by the side of the bed on which he was lying. A small lamp, on the table at the opposite side of the room, illuminated the surroundings sufficiently for him to see that he was in the room which he now remembered to have entered.
“I—I guess so,” he said, swinging his feet to the floor and raising himself on one elbow. “I think I’m all here, but you can never tell,” he added, lying back again as his head began to swim. “But how’d you get in, Jacques?” he asked feebly.
“Heem let me in,” the Frenchman replied, pointing toward the foot of the bed.