“Oh Lord! I can’t wait a minute more! My shins are getting blistered!” cried Joe, writhing under the heat of the blaze, which now reached within a few inches of him, and increased in magnitude with awful rapidity. “Well, if you won’t wait till I git there, just go ahead yourself,” said Sneak, at last extricating his feet by a violent effort, and hopping to Joe’s assistance, with some difficulty, for his nether limbs were considerably bruised. “Hang it, Sneak, pull these burning sticks away from my knees!” said Joe, his face flushed with pain. “I’ll be bursted with powder, if you didn’t like to git into a purty tight fix,” said Sneak, dashing down the consuming billets of wood. “Now, Sneak, cut me loose, and then let’s run home as soon as possible.” “I hain’t got my knife with me, or I wouldn’t ’ave been so long gitting loose myself,” said Sneak, slowly untying Joe’s hands. “My goodness, how my arms ache!” said Joe, when his hands were released. “Now, Sneak, undo my feet, and then we’ll be off in a hurry.” “I’ll be slit if your feet ain’t tied like mine was, in rich a hard knot that no mortal being can git it undone. I’ll take a chunk, and burn the tarnation string in two,” said Sneak, applying the fire. “Take care you don’t burn _me_,” said Joe, looking at the operation with much concern. Sneak’s plan of severing his companion’s bonds was successful. Joe sprang in delight from his place of confinement, and, without uttering another word, or pausing a single moment, the liberated companions retreated from grove with all possible expedition. CHAPTER XV. Glenn’s History. The young chief, or rather the restored youth, awoke in a few days from the delirium into which the fever had plunged him, to a state of convalescence and a consciousness of his altered condition. He now uttered with earnest tenderness the endearing terms of “sister” and “father,” when he addressed Mary and Roughgrove. He spoke freely of the many things he had witnessed while living with the Indians, expressing his abhorrence of their habits and nature, and declared it was his intention never to have any further intercourse with them. He promised, when he should be able to leave his bed, to read and study with Mary and Glenn, until he had made amends for the neglect of his education. These symptoms, and the tractable disposition accompanying them, caused Mary and Roughgrove to rejoice over the return of the long-lost youth, and to bow in humble thankfulness to the Disposer of events for the singular and providential circumstances attending his restoration. Joe had arrived in due course of time, (which was brief,) after his almost miraculous escape from the savages and the flames, and told his story with various embellishments. The Indians were hunted the next day by Sneak and a few of the neighbours, but they had doubtless abandoned the settlement, for no traces of them remained after their mysterious flight from the grove.