And then came the woman’s turn.  I knew that my face was strained, though I strove to keep it sneering.  I saw the oldest man give instructions, then he went to the two women and pointed the way before him.  I pushed along as best I could.  He took them to a small hut of bark and motioned them within, while he himself dropped the mat in front of the opening.  They were safe for that night at least.

The savages were wearied now and turned to Pierre and me with yawns.  They made short work of us.  I was bound to the arm of a stout warrior, and he dragged me under a tree and dropped on the ground.  He was snoring before I had finished building a barricade of cloak between us to keep as much as possible of his touch and smell away.

The camp quieted rapidly, and I soon had only silence between me and the stars.  My mind was active but curiously placid.  Inch by inch I went over the ground of the last twenty-four hours.  I stated the case to myself as a foreigner translates a lesson.  It is sometimes a help to put a situation in the concrete, to phrase it as to a stranger.  In that way you stand aloof and see new light.  So I put the matter in category, sharing it with the stars, and with the back of the snoring Indian.

We were in Pemaou’s hands.  He had known that the Iroquois were coming; had probably known it months before, and had instigated this campaign.  He wished an alliance with the English, and, though he could work to that end through the Iroquois, he would find an English prisoner a material aid.  I could see how useful I had been to him in keeping the Englishwoman away from Michillimackinac,—­where he would have had ado to hold his title of possession to her,—­and I could not but respect the skill with which he had timed his blow, and brought her to the Iroquois camp at the right moment.  Yes, I had served him well, from the time when I had assisted him to hear Longuant’s speech in the Ottawa camp to the present hour.  The accident that had strengthened him still further by throwing Lord Starling into his hands he also owed to me.  But I looked up at the stars and did not lose courage.  The game was not over; the score was yet to be paid.

I had many plans to arrange.  Day was coming, and I watched the horizon breaking and felt that the morning would bring new opportunity.

And then, just as I needed all my wit and presence, I fell into a deep, exhausted sleep.

CHAPTER XXII

THE PRICE OF SLEEP

I do not know that, after all, I can call that sleep which fell upon me.  Sleep is merely a blessed veiling of the faculties; this was collapse, deadness.  The Indian beside me must have been equally worn, for he lay like a log.  We were huddled close to a tree, so were unnoticed, or at least undisturbed.  The sun was hours high when I opened my eyes.

I sprang to my feet, dragging the Indian to his knees.  He grunted, rubbed his eyes, and feeling sluggish and uncomfortable from the warmth of the morning, found me an incubus.  He grunted again, untied the thongs that bound us, and went, stretching and yawning, to find his breakfast.