Trembling with dread that he should find this to be the grave of his murdered companions, Dick rushed forward and hastily cleared away the leaves.  The first handful thrown off revealed part of the figure of a man.  Dick’s heart beat audibly as he cleared the leaves from the face, and he uttered a suppressed cry on beholding the well-known features of Joe Blunt.  But they were not those of a dead man.  Joe’s eyes met his with a scowl of anger, which instantly gave place to one of intense surprise.

“Joe Blunt!” exclaimed Dick in a voice of intense amazement, while Crusoe snuffed round the heap of leaves and whined with excitement.  But Joe did not move, neither did he speak a word in reply—­for the very good reason that his mouth was tightly bound with a band of leather, his hands and feet were tied, and his whole body was secured in a rigid, immovable position by being bound to a pole of about his own length.

In a moment Dick’s knife was out, bands and cords were severed, and Joe Blunt was free.

“Thank God!” exclaimed Joe with a deep, earnest sigh, the instant his lips were loosened, “and thanks to you, lad!” he added, endeavouring to rise; but his limbs had become so benumbed in consequence of the cords by which they had been compressed that for some time he could not move.

“I’ll rub ye, Joe; I’ll soon rub ye into a right state,” said Dick, going down on his knees.

“No, no, lad, look sharp and dig up Henri.  He’s just beside me here.”

Dick immediately rose, and pushing aside the heap of leaves, found Henri securely bound in the same fashion.  But he could scarce refrain from laughing at the expression of that worthy’s face.  Hearing the voices of Joe and Dick Varley in conversation, though unable to see their persons, he was filled with such unbounded amazement that his eyes, when uncovered, were found to be at their largest possible stretch, and as for the eyebrows they were gone, utterly lost among the roots of his voluminous hair.

“Henri, friend, I knew I should find ye,” said Dick, cutting the thongs that bound him.  “Get up if ye can; we haven’t much time to lose, an’ mayhap we’ll have to fight afore we’re done wi’ the Redskins.  Can ye rise?”

Henri could do nothing but lie on his back and gasp, “Eh! possible! mon frere!  Oh, non, non, not possible.  Oui! my broder Deek!”

Here he attempted to rise, but being unable fell back again, and the whole thing came so suddenly, and made so deep an impression on his impulsive mind, that he incontinently burst into tears; then he burst into a long laugh.  Suddenly he paused, and scrambling up to a sitting posture, looked earnestly into Dick’s face through his tearful eyes.

“Oh, non, non!” he exclaimed, stretching himself out at full length again, and closing his eyes; “it are too goot to be true.  I am dream.  I vill wait till I am wake.”

Dick roused him out of this, resolute sleep, however, somewhat roughly.  Meanwhile Joe had rubbed and kicked himself into a state of animation, exclaiming that he felt as if he wos walkin’ on a thousand needles and pins, and in a few minutes they were ready to accompany their overjoyed deliverer back to the Peigan camp.  Crusoe testified his delight in various elephantine gambols round the persons of his old friends, who were not slow to acknowledge his services.