We therefore repeat emphatically--in case any reader should have presumed to contradict us--that Dick Varley sat before the fire _ruminating_! Joe Blunt likewise sat by the fire along with him, ruminating too, and smoking besides.

Henri also sat there smoking, and looking a little the worse of his late supper.
"I don't like the look o' things," said Joe, blowing a whiff of smoke slowly from his lips, and watching it as it ascended into the still air.

"That blackguard Mahtawa is determined not to let us off till he gits all our goods; an' if he gits them, he may as well take our scalps too, for we would come poor speed in the prairies without guns, horses, or goods." Dick looked at his friend with an expression of concern.

"What's to be done ?" said he.
"Ve must escape," answered Henri; but his tone was not a hopeful one, for he knew the danger of their position better than Dick.
"Ay, we must escape--at least we must try," said Joe.

"But I'll make one more effort to smooth over San-it-sa-rish, an' git him to snub that villain Mahtawa." Just as he spoke the villain in question entered the tent with a bold, haughty air, and sat down before the fire in sullen silence.