The savage then lifted her on his shoulder, ran down to the rivulet that flowed through the valley, and fled outwards to the prairie.  When he reached the cave-spring, a confederate, who had been waiting for him, seized the burden and bore it onwards, in a westerly direction, with increased rapidity.  Thus they continued the retreat, bearing the insensible maiden alternately, until they came to a small grove some distance out in the prairie, when they slackened their pace, and, after creeping a short time under the pendent boughs of the trees, halted in the camp of the war-party.

The Indians gathered round the pale captive, some with rage and deadly passions marked upon their faces, and others with expressions of triumph and satisfaction.  They now made preparations for departing.  Mary was wrapped in a large buffalo robe, enveloping her body and face, and placed in the snow-canoe.  The party then deposited their tomahawks and other cumbersome articles at the feet of their captive, and, grasping the leather rope attached to the canoe, set off rapidly in a southerly direction.

Ere long, Mary partially awoke from her state of insensibility, when all was dark and strange to her confused senses.  She pulled aside the long hair of the buffalo skin that obscured her face, and looked out from her narrow place of confinement.  The blue heavens alone met her view above.  The incident of the seizure was indistinct in her memory, and she could not surmise the nature of her present condition.  She turned hastily on her side, and the occasional bush she espied in the vicinity indicated that she was rushing along by some means with an almost inconceivable rapidity.  She could scarce believe it was reality.  How she came thither, and how she was propelled over the snow, for several moments were matters of incomprehensible mystery to the trembling girl.  At first, she endeavoured to persuade herself that it was a dream; but, having a consciousness that some terrible thing had actually occurred, all the painful fears of which the mind is capable were put in active operation.  The suspense was soon dispelled.  Hearing human voices ahead, and not readily comprehending the language, she hastily rose on her elbow.  The party of Indians dragging her fleetly over the smooth prairie met her chilled view.  But she was now comparatively collected and calm.  Instantly her true condition was apparent.  She watched the swarthy forms some moments in silence, meditating the means of escape.  Presently one of the savages turned partly round, and she sank back to escape his observation.  Again she rose up a few inches, and their faces were all turned away from her.  She gradually acquired resolution to encounter any hardship or peril that might be the means of effecting her escape.  But what plan was she to adopt?  The almost interminable plain of which she was in the midst afforded no hiding-place.  Then, the speed of the flying snow-canoe, were she to leap out, would not only produce a hurtful collision