“Oh, nivare mind de difficulties,” interrupted Henri, whose wrath at the treatment he had received had not yet cooled down.  “Ve must jump on de best horses ve can git hold, shake our fists at de red reptiles, and go away fast as ve can.  De best hoss must vin de race.”

Joe shook his head.  “A hundred arrows would be in our backs before we got twenty yards from the camp.  Besides, we can’t tell which are the best horses.  Our own are the best in my ’pinion, but how are we to git’ em?”

“I know who has charge o’ them,” said Dick.  “I saw them grazing near the tent o’ that poor squaw whose baby was saved by Crusoe.  Either her husband looks after them or some neighbours.”

“That’s well,” said Joe.  “That’s one o’ my difficulties gone.”

“What are the others?”

“Well, d’ye see, they’re troublesome.  We can’t git the horses out o’ camp without bein’ seen, for the red rascals would see what we were at in a jiffy.  Then, if we do git ’em out, we can’t go off without our bales, an’ we needn’t think to take ’em from under the nose o’ the chief and his squaws without bein’ axed questions.  To go off without them would niver do at all.”

“Joe,” said Dick earnestly, “I’ve hit on a plan.”

“Have ye, Dick—­what is’t?”

“Come and I’ll let ye see,” answered Dick, rising hastily and quitting the tent, followed by his comrades and his faithful dog.

It may be as well to remark here, that no restraint whatever had yet been put on the movements of our hunters as long as they kept to their legs, for it was well known that any attempt by men on foot to escape from mounted Indians on the plains would be hopeless.  Moreover, the savages thought that as long as there was a prospect of their being allowed to depart peaceably with their goods, they would not be so mad as to fly from the camp, and, by so doing, risk their lives and declare war with their entertainers.  They had therefore been permitted to wander unchecked, as yet, far beyond the outskirts of the camp, and amuse themselves in paddling about the lake in the small Indian canoes and shooting wild-fowl.

Dick now led the way through the labyrinths of tents in the direction of the lake, and they talked and laughed loudly, and whistled to Crusoe as they went, in order to prevent their purpose being suspected.  For the purpose of further disarming suspicion, they went without their rifles.  Dick explained his plan by the way, and it was at once warmly approved of by his comrades.

On reaching the lake they launched a small canoe, into which Crusoe was ordered to jump; then, embarking, they paddled swiftly to the opposite shore, singing a canoe song as they dipped their paddles in the moonlit waters of the lake.  Arrived at the other side, they hauled the canoe up and hurried through the thin belt of wood and willows that intervened between the lake and the prairie.  Here they paused.