Thanks be to God, my quick fancy was dulled, and I did not try to look
into the future. I lived for the moment, and I was resolved that the
moment should find me unmoved.
They carried me to where their horses were tied up in a glade, and
presently we were galloping towards the hills, myself an inert bundle
strapped across an Indian saddle. The pain of the motion was great, but
I had a kind of grim comfort in bearing it. After a time I think my
senses left me, and I slipped into a stupor, from which I woke with a
fiery ache at every joint and eyes distended with a blinding heat. Some
one tossed me on the ground, where I lay with my cheek in a cool, wet
patch of earth. Then I felt my bonds being unloosed, and a strong arm
pulled me to my feet. When it let go I dropped again, and not till many
hands had raised me and set me on a log could I look round at my
whereabouts.
I was in a crook of a hill glen, lit with a great radiance of
moonlight. Fires dotted the flat, and Indian tents, and there seemed to
me hundreds of savages crowding in on me. I do not suppose that I
showed any fear, for my bodily weakness had made me as impassive as any
Indian.
Presently a voice spoke to me, but I could not understand the words.
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