"I advise you to take two or three more with you. You may capture the three Indians your men are firing at now."
He called three of his men, who joined us in the wagon, and I drove off as fast as I could make the horses go.
"Where did you see Lieutenant Pope?" asked Mr. Jackson.
"At his camp on the Big Fish. You must keep those three Indians from going up the Fish River if you can."
"Why so?"
But the violent jolting of the wagon prevented me from talking, and him from hearing; so I deferred my explanation till a more convenient season. In a few minutes, I stopped the horses a short distance from the landing, when Mr. Gracewood hailed me from a clump of bushes. I felt relieved when I saw that Ella and he were safe. I helped the trembling mother out of the wagon, and conducted her to the spot.
"My child! O, Ella!" cried Mrs. Gracewood, as she bent over the form of her daughter.
"I am safe, mother," she replied, faintly.
They sobbed and wept in each other's arms till Mr. Gracewood interposed, and then we placed the sufferer on the bed in the wagon.
"Now, lieutenant, if you will let one of your men drive the horses up to the Castle, I will tell how the land lies here," said I, when the party was ready to start.