"'I swore that I would be revenged on him and his,' snarled Cloud. "'What are you going to do?' I inquired. I was wound about lengthwise with a long rope, and could move no more than my little finger. "'I am going to hang you,' he replied. The two men that had been left behind approached us as if to interfere, but he repulsed them, and they hurried into the woods. "I was frightened. The idea that he really intended to do it never entered my mind. But now I judge that he must be a maniac and nothing less. "'You villain,' I said, 'you dare not lay hands on me!'" Aunt Clarissa started. She remembered this was the expression that George had used in his delirium. "Do you know what that, _that_"--George paused for an expression--"what he did?" he said at last, quite calmly. "He put a rope around my neck, and threw the end over the branch of a tree. Even then I did not suppose that he was trying to do anything but frighten me, but I shall never forget the horror with which I felt the rope tighten about my throat! As he was no heavier than I, he could not lift me entirely from the ground.--I could still almost stand upon my toes." Aunt Clarissa and Grace both grew faint. The Colonel dashed his riding-whip to the ground. George panted as he went on with his story. "I can remember no more than seeing that fiend standing there cross-legged, looking up at me. Then it seemed to me I fell from some frightful height." "You must have come home after that," said Aunt Clarissa, "for you arrived here shortly after dusk." She made up her mind that she would not say anything about the latter escapade and his escape from the house, as George did not wish to talk on further, and Colonel Hewes also concluded to say nothing about the doctor's discovery, which the latter had related to him. "After I fell, I remember nothing for two days, you know," George added. "Never mind," said Aunt Clarissa, smoothing back his hair. "You must rest, dear boy." The lad closed his eyes, and appeared to drop asleep. Colonel Hewes took his leave at once. As he went across the meadow toward the foundry a thought struck him. "Jove! I have the solution!" he said, "It was Adam Bent Knee's revenge. Indian blood will show out. I have always held it so. He has settled scores for good and all with his old enemy Cloud."