"8AUVE ,>ri I'EUT." 329 



The Indians! the Indians! Take care of yourself," 



the Virginian ; then turning the bridle of his hor.se, 

 he set off at a gallop, repeating, " Take care of yourself! 

 lake care of yourself !" 



Oh, empty counsel ! 



I made another effort to rouse my panic-stricken steed, 

 but not being successful, I leaped from the saddle, and 

 speedily gained an. old leafy oak, into whose boughs I 

 mounted with the view of concealing myself behind their 

 intertangled covert. I had scarcely installed myself 

 behind a tuft of Spanish moss before twenty or thirty 

 savages, their faces streaked with the " war-paint," 

 their heads covered with feathers, debouched into the 

 valley beneath me. They were Comanches. 



On catching sight of my horse, which still stood where 

 I had left him, the Redskins halted ; one of them ap- 

 proached the animal, and caught the end of his bridle ; 

 but the troop, discovering in the distance the fugitive 

 Virginian, resumed their wild fierce gallop, with a shout 

 so furious and loud that it shook the very leaves around 

 me. 



It did more; it startled my mustang into life. He 

 shot away as abruptly as he had halted, sweeping on- 

 ward like a thunderbolt, dragging with him the Indian, 

 who still clung to the end of his bridle, and over- 

 whelming everything which seemed to oppose his im- 

 petuous course. In the twinkling of an eye he had 

 vanished from the scene ! Soon afterwards, the Comanches 

 also disappeared. I heard two or three straggling shots, 

 and found myself abandoned to a frightful solitude, 

 whose silence was troubled only by the groans of the 

 wounded bear, slowly expiring at my feet. 



