I have not lived upon the border of this vast wilderness all my life without learning something regarding the customs of savages.

If they spare a woman from stake or knife it is that they may doom her to a fate more horrible, making of her their degraded slave.

I know this, and have read the truth anew in those faces glaring upon me to-day.

There remains but one faint hope--that woman who seems to exercise control over them may incline the savages to mercy." "I cannot encourage you to place much trust in such tenderness," I confessed sadly.

"'T is not likely, despite her white face, and certain graces bespeaking knowledge of civilization, she will prove any less a savage than those she governs.