The canoe in which he was seated was in the lead, and there were but half a dozen warriors in the boat besides the chief. Their companions were lying stark and cold on the blood-stained shore they had quitted.

Following closely was a flotilla of war-canoes, heavily laden with warriors, hideous as satyrs, and in the nearest canoe three captives were huddled, whom the Indian girl recognised as her father's chief counsellor, Ascassasatic, his daughter and his little grandchild. Heather Flower knew that the unfortunate Wy-tit-tee was a widow, her infant daughter fatherless, for she had seen the young warrior stricken down by an arrow.

The scene was familiar, for the Indian rowers were steering among the outlying rocks close upon the shore of Man-cho-nock, and as the captive turned her eyes toward the headland she descried a figure flitting across a white patch of moonlit sward, to be lost in the blackness of the timber belt upon the verge of the bluff.

Only the hawk-like vision of an Indian, or the keen eyes of love or hate, could have recognised a friend or foe, but the three qualities were combined in that glimpse.

"The Black-heart!" she whispered through her clenched teeth. "What does he here when the moon is in the midnight sky?"

A torch was burning at the prow of the canoe, and the action of Ninigret confirmed her suspicions.

Grasping the blazing pine knot, the chief whirled it thrice about his head, poised it so that the light fell full upon his captive's face and form, ere he hurled it far out over the dark waters, where it whirled and danced like the fiery eye of a Cyclops.

"A signal light! He is the traitor! he said the

words that told the Narragansetts when to strike to the hearts of the Montauks!"

The conviction settled upon heart and brain like a red-hot iron, as the paddles again dipped and the flotilla dashed onward, leaving ghostly manes of snow-white, like the bleached locks of drowned mariners tossing upon the waves.

Had Guy Kingsland guessed that he had been seen and recognised by the Indian girl whom he had made his deadly foe, the pillow which his head pressed so heavily would have been indeed a bed of thorns.

Three days later an encampment of Narragansetts was located upon a spot near the beach on Block Island. The point was not one frequently used as a camping ground, and the party was small, numbering not more than a score, too few for a war party, too numerous for a fishing party; besides their movements were singular.

Only one lodge had been erected, large and commodious as befitted the lodging place of a chief of the Narragansetts, for the leader was Ninigret.

Upon the cliff above the beach a vidette was posted at a station commanding an extended view of the Sound in the direction of the Connecticut shore.

Both by looks and gestures it was apparent the watch was expecting the approach of either friend or foe by water.

The sun was sinking low in the western horizon when the lookout descried a sail, a mere speck at first, but gradually growing on the sight, and patiently the warrior watched it until he was assured he had not been mistaken in the character of the craft, and as he gazed the sun dipped lower, finally sinking beneath the wave upon which its last beams lingered, a sheet of flame reflected from the hidden fires in the horizon.

There was no mistake. More rapidly as the boat neared, the white sails enlarged, the rigging of a ship loomed up, and presently the dark hull was plainly visible.

Not until then did the sentinel leave his post and hasten to the wigwam, and as he neared the entrance the chief stepped forth to meet him.

Bending his head in presence of the Sachem, the young brave awaited his speech.

"The white man's canoe comes?" asked Ninigret. War-canoe there!" replied the brave, pointing

seaward.

Summoning his warriors by a sweep of his hand, Ninigret made his way to the crest of the bluff to await the coming of the ship that was now in plain view, and that presently cast anchor.

Upon the deck stood a detachment of soldiers in the uniform of the English army, the last red glow of the dying day deepening their scarlet coats to blood-red, and burnishing the hilts of their weapons in Roman gold. A boat was quickly lowered and manned, and a man of soldierly bearing stepped in and was rowed ashore.

With a few peremptory commands to his boatmen, he stepped upon the beach and climbed up the rough pathway, meeting the chief upon the escarpment.

CHAPTER XXI

TRUE TO BIRTH AND BREEDING

HE white chief is welcome in the lodge of his red brother," greeted the Sachem, as he took Major Gordon's extended hand in a strong grip. "Is my white brother afraid that he brings so many red-coats from the strong lodge where the waters meet?"

"Not for protection, chief," returned the Major, "but as a precaution to blind the eyes of the Montauk Sachem; Wyandance is cunning as the fox, and had I not taken with me a detachment of English soldiers his daughter would surely have suspected that the affair had been cut and dried, and such a suspicion would bring the Montauk warriors about our ears like a nest of hornets."

Wagh! Narragansett braves take sting from Montauk wasp! make 'em 'fraid strike white brothers! Ugh!" exclaimed Ninigret, contemptuously.

"You took some scalps, eh?" questioned Gordon. "Much scalp-see!" assented Ninigret, brushing the long tufts of purple-black hair trailing to his knee. "Montauks squaws-not fight warriors." "Well, Sachem, we bring the ransom agreed upon

for the caged red bird: ten blankets, twenty-four hatchets, ten spades, forty knives, many fathoms of beads, with the rings, and a cask of New England rum-that was what was agreed upon, and I think it is ample ransom for a warrior, and this is only a squaw; I have dealt handsomely by you, Sachem.'

"Not like other squaw, not woman of burdenmother princess of Iroquois, father Sachem; blood in heart of Wyandance, life of his veins, Montauk chief love daughter deep here!" he added, pressing his hand upon his breast.

Aye, and shall pay roundly in broad lands," Gordon said in his heart, with a sinister smile upon his thin lips, then aloud, "Zooks! I have done you a good turn, Sachem, scalps and glory and a round ransom for the Narragansetts, land for me."

"Land!" sneered Ninigret, almost fiercely, "always land-more land! pale-face take all land bimeby, drive red man away towards setting sun where his fathers once dwelt before they drove away their enemies, hundreds of moon ago and made a path to where the sun rises from the Great Waters.1 White man take no more land from the Narragansetts.'

The usually astute white man had stumbled upon dangerous ground, and aroused the jealousy concerning the land transactions, a common cause that might, ere long, cement the various tribes in a confederation that would prove highly dangerous and disastrous to the settlers.

Ninigret's gloomy brow grew dark and his deepset eyes kindled.

"Well, Sachem, let that pass," the Major re

1 The Long Island and mainland tribes had a tradition that their forefathers came from a land far to the westward, fought and conquered the ancient tribes inhabiting the islands and seaboard and took possession of the country which their descendants have since occupied.