head having strayed and two soldiers missing. And the manoeuvres of that same guard did ever sicken me.

It proved another bloody story, too, for first we found an ox with throat cut; and, it being good meat, we ordered it taken in. And then, in the bushes ahead, a soldier begins a-bawling that the devil is in his horses, and that they have run back into the woods.

I heard him chasing them, and shouted for him to wait, but the poor fool pays no heed, but runs on after his three horses; and soon he screams out:

“God a’mighty!” And, “Christ have mercy!”

With that I blow my ranger’s whistle, and my Indians pass me like phantoms in the dusk, and I hot-foot after them; but it was too late