VIRTUE IN A LOCKET Long-Hair stood not upon ceremony in conveying to Beverley the information that he was to run the gauntlet, which, otherwise stated, meant that the Indians would form themselves in two parallel lines facing each other about six feet apart, and that the prisoner would be expected to run down the length of the space between, thus affording the warriors an opportunity, greatly coveted and relished by their fiendish natures, to beat him cruelly during his flight.

This sort of thing was to the Indians, indeed, an exquisite amusement, as fascinating to them as the theater is to more enlightened people.

No sooner was it agreed upon that the entertainment should again be undertaken than all the younger men began to scurry around getting everything ready for it.

Their faces glowed with a droll cruelty strange to see, and they further expressed their lively expectations by playful yet curiously solemn antics.
The preparations were simple and quickly made.

Each man armed himself with a stick three feet long and about three-quarters of an inch in diameter.