"If there is any one here whose wisdom can serve us better," said Nathan, meekly, "let him speak. Thee don't know Peter, friend, or thee would use him with respect. Many a long day has he followed me through the forest; and many a time has he helped me out of harm and peril from man and beast, when I was at sore shifts to help myself. For, truly, friend, as I told thee before, the Injuns have no regard for men, whether men of peace or war; and an honest, quiet, peace-loving man can no more roam the wood, hunting for the food that sustains life, without the fear of being murdered, than a fighting-man in search of his prey.--Thee sees now what little dog Peter is doing? He runs to the tracks, and he wags his tail;--truly I am of the same way of thinking!" "What tracks are they?" demanded Roland, as he followed Nathan to the path which the latter had been pursuing, when arrested by the soldier, and where the little cur was now smelling about, occasionally lifting his head and wagging his tail, as if to call his master's attention. "_What_ tracks!" echoed Nathan, looking on the youth first with wonder, and then with commiseration, and adding,--"It was a tempting of Providence, friend, for _thee_ to lead poor helpless women into a wild forest. Does thee not know the tracks of thee own horses?" "'Sdeath!" said Roland, looking on the marks, as Nathan, pointed them out in the soft earth, and reflecting with chagrin how wildly he had been rambling, for more than an hour, since they had been impressed on the soil. "Thee knows the hoof-marks," said Nathan, now pointing with a grin, at other tracks of a different appearance among them; "perhaps thee knows _these_ foot-prints also?" "They are the marks of footmen," said the soldier, in surprise; "but how came they there I know not, no footmen being of our party." The grin that marked the visage of the man of peace widened almost into a laugh, as Roland spoke. "Verily," he cried, "thee is in the wrong place, friend, in the forest! If thee had no footmen with thee, could thee have none _after_ thee? Look, friend, here are tracks, not of one man, but of five, each stepping on tiptoe, as if to tread lightly and look well before him,--each with a moccasin on,--each with a toe turned in; each--" "Enough,--they were Indians!" said Roland, with a shudder, "and they must have been close behind us!"