A gleam of amusement played over his swarthy face.
"Ah, and so you let him win!" he exclaimed; "he, a mere voyager from the courts, unused to forest play! Such remissness deserves the guard-house, at the very least. Come, how happened it that this gay sprig outfooted you?"
"'T was but a trick," I retorted, aroused by these contemptuous words, "and one I shall make him pay well for. But I pray you cut these bands and set me free."
I think he had not noticed them before; but now, as he quickly drew his knife across the deerskin thongs, his whole expression changed.
"'Tis Indian tying," he said earnestly; "you have been in the hands of the savages?"
"Ay!" and the memory of it instantly brought back the recollection of the sacrifice that had won us our freedom. "There were three of us taken at daylight on the river bank, beyond the factory building. De Croix and I escaped through the efforts of one who is still a prisoner, and marked for torture."
Many were gathering about us by this time, anxious to learn whatever news I brought from without; but it was Captain Heald himself who now pushed his way through the throng until he fronted me.
"Who was it?" he asked, sharply. "We have lost no men!"
"His name is Burns, sir. I ran across him just back of the Kinzie house."
"Burns? Ol' Tom Burns?"