They were yet some distance from the point, when a slight was heard in a patch of woods in front, and they stopped.
"Wait a minute or two, until I find out what it means," said Fred; "it will save time to go through there, but it won't do to undertake it if it isn't safe."
And before Mr. Brainerd could protest, his son moved forward, as stealthily as an Indian , while the former himself until the issue of the reconnoissance should become known.
The old gentleman realized too the horrors of the still going on around them to permit himself to run any unnecessary risk, now that there was a of rejoining his family; and he regretted that his child had gone forward so , instead of carefully flanking what seemed to be a dangerous spot.
But it was too late now to recall him, for he was beyond sight, and Mr. Brainerd could only wait and hope for the best, while, it may be truly said, he feared the worst.
It was not long before Fred Godfrey began strongly to suspect he had committed an error, from which it required all the skill at his command to himself.
The wood that he had entered covered something less than an acre, and was simply a portion of the through which they had been making their way. He had scarcely entered it when the of voices told him that others were in advance, and he knew enough of the Indians to recognize the sounds as made by them.
It was at that very moment he ought to have , and, rejoining Mr. Brainerd, left the neighborhood as silently as possible, but his curiosity led him on.
That curiosity was gratified by the sight of six of his own people held prisoners by a group of twice as many Indians, who, beyond question, were making preparations for putting their victims to death.
As seems to be the rule, these prisoners, all of whom were able-bodied men, most of them young, were in a state of despair and
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