With an exclamation of anger and pity, Lawrence turned away, elbowing the crowd until he stood outside the cordon of human beings. intent on witnessing the punishment.

Captain Gardiner followed at his heels, but the scene must have possessed a peculiar fascination for both the Major and Lieutenant, for they remained near the post until the full measure of the sentence had been inflicted, and the executioner dropped the blood-stained lash upon the green sward, where it trailed like a glistening crimson snake-knot, while the man leaned against the post, panting heavily from the violence of his late exercise.

A rough plantation hand stepped forward and released the prisoner, who, in spite of his nerve and iron will, staggered helplessly forward, his arms hanging limply by his side. One moment he reeled dizzily, and then, by an almost superhuman effort, the degraded warrior raised himself to his full height and looked about him, the maniacal glare of the gladiator, pitted against wild beasts, in his eyes. All the ferocity of his nature was aroused, and barely held in abeyance, while his fingers clenched and unclenched, and his white teeth ground together with a click that caused Kingsland to shiver as he heard the sound and met the stare in that basilisk eye.

Again, in spite of all his firmness, the proud warrior faltered as he reached the spot where Captain Gardiner and Colonel Lawrence awaited the coming of their companions.

Nature, even Indian nature, could endure no more; notwithstanding his utmost efforts to conquer his weakness, Poniute reeled blindly against the trunk of a knotted oak, and sank to the ground like some savage animal wounded to the death, his sightless eyes open wide.

In a moment Henry Lawrence was kneeling by his side.

"Hark'ee, Captain, there's nothing in your beastly laws that will forbid an act of mercy to this poor devil, and if there is, why, demme, I'll e'en take the consequences! Here, poor fellow, take a pull at my brandy flask, it will set you up, lad!"

He held the flask to the swooning man's lips, and the Indian swallowed a hearty draught.

"Look alive, Colonel!" exclaimed Lieutenant Kingsland, who had hastened to join his friends. "If I am informed correctly you are breaking the law at this blessed minute; you have no authority to give an Indian brandy-there's a statute against it!

"What's all that clatter?" asked the Colonel. "Is it not so, Captain?" asked Guy, turning to Gardiner.

Verily," returned the Captain, the statute says no person shall sell, truck, barter, give or 'deliver any strong liquor to an Indian under penalty of forty shillings for one pint, and in proportion for any greater or lesser quantity, except in case of sudden extremity, and then not exceeding two drams.' So the law reads, but marry, my lad, it strikes me this is a case of sudden extremity."

"I'll give him a full pint if he needs it, and pay my fine without a grimace. Gramercy! it strikes me that the statutes to protect white men are multiplied, but where is the law for the Indian? Courage, man!" addressing the warrior, who had partly raised himself from the ground, but fell back exhausted and setting his teeth hard from the pain he was enduring, "let me lift this rough blanket which is no fit covering for such bruises. God A'mighty! Look here Captain, this is horrible!" The Colonel ground out the words between his

teeth as he lifted the heavy blanket and exposed the lacerated shoulders that were seamed as if from the strokes of a knife blade.

"Zounds! what do you think of that, Major?" cried Captain Gardiner, in angry tones.

But the Major made no reply, and neither he nor the Lieutenant offered the slightest assistance while Gardiner brought water in his hat from a stream near at hand and held it, and the Colonel bathed the wounds by dipping his handkerchief in the cool water and laving the surface as tenderly as if his were a woman's hands.

Demme, Captain, that fellow yon must have the strength of a giant to inflict such punishment. One would imagine he was chosen for the strength of muscle," grumbled the Colonel.

The yokel was obliged to do his duty, else he might have chanced to get a taste of the cat upon his own shoulders," said the Major, philosophically.

"It is unsafe to carry such a free tongue while on trial, and it is not altogether safe for even officers of the English army to cavil at the punishment awarded to law-breakers,' put in Lieutenant.

the

Kingsland believed the sufferer to be too insensible to make out the drift of the conversation, but that Poniute both heard and understood Captain Gardiner knew by the sudden fierce gleam shot from between his half closed lids.

The wounds were cleansed at last, and while the Captain cast the water from his dripping hat, which he shook sharply ere he replaced it upon his head, the Colonel took from his own neck a silken scarf, and spreading it smoothly across the lacerated shoulders, he drew the blanket over it.

"Take another pull at the brandy, my friend,

God knows you need it!" spoke Lawrence, again holding the flask to the Indian's lips.

"White brother pay fine," answered the warrior. "Poniute go now."

"Take it, it will make my red brother strong. You know there is a law against an Indian being found loitering in the town; the sooner you get back to the village the safer you will be," advised Captain Gardiner. "Take it," insisted the Captain; "never mind the fine, you must not risk another dozen, my lad."

"Demme, Captain, let's take him to his lodge; he is not strong enough to go by himself," protested the Colonel. "There shall be no more such infernal work and I stand by!'

Ere the Captain could reply Poniute raised his hands to his lips and gave a long, peculiar cry, a shrill, wailing sound that reverberated through the forest like the call of some hoarse night bird.

In response a score of warriors emerged from the shelter of a wall of boulders skirting the path, each armed with tomahawk and knife, which he drew from beneath the folds of his blanket, and at the sudden apparition Kingsland and the Major started violently, while a smile of derision hovered upon the lips of the wounded man.

"Pale-face brothers go now-Poniute's red brothers take him to his wigwam-Indian not forget good white brothers-remember bad white men too."

Evidently the Indians were prepared for the emergency, and dragging a litter from its concealment in the thick undergrowth of brush and vines they spread blankets thereon, lifted their companion, and in another moment the soft tread of their moccasins died away on the path carpeted with a thick layer of pine needles.

CHAPTER XXV

NINIGRET'S CAPTIVES

"The sun sets at night and the stars shun the day,
But glory remains when the light fades away;
Begin, ye tormenters, your threats are in vain,
For the son of Alnoomock will never complain.

"Remember the arrows he shot from his bow,
Remember your chiefs by his hatchet laid low;
O why do ye wait till I shrink from my pain?
For the son of Alnoomock will never complain.

"Remember the spot where in ambush he lay,
The scalps that he bore from your nation away,
The flame rises fast, you exult in my pain,
But the son of Alnoomock will never complain.

"I will go to the land where my father has gone,
And he shall exult in the fame of his son;
Death comes, like a friend, to release me from pain,
And the son of Alnoomock will never complain."

LINE of unbroken forest fringing the
shore of Block Island, save for a green
glade opening, fan-like, from the water's

edge, and sloping gradually upward to the point where the forest trees met at the apex of the angle, the earth softly carpeted with moss and starry with autumn flowers, a sylvan nook fashioned by nature's hand, upon which the moon, now but a narrow sickle in the western sky, shed a faint, ghostly light, but myriads of solemn stars floated in the dome above, their light paling in the red glare of torches throwing out sheets of flame and dancing in fantastic