Lewis and Clark had about forty-five men with them.  One of these men was named Colter.  In the very heart of the wild country he left the party, and set up as a trapper.  A trapper is a man who catches animals in traps in order to get their skins to sell.  The Blackfoot Indians made Colter a prisoner.  Colter knew a little of their language.  He heard them talking of how they should kill their prisoner.  They thought it would be fun to set him up and shoot at him with their arrows until he was dead.  At this time the Indians on the western plains had no guns.  But the Indian chief thought he knew a better way.  He laid hold of Colter’s shoulder, and said,—­

“Can you run fast?”

Colter could run very swiftly, but he pretended to the chief that he was a bad runner.  So they took him out on the prairie about four hundred yards away from the Indians.  There he was turned loose, and told to run.

The whole band of Indians ran after him, yelling like wild beasts.  Colter did not look back.  He had to run through thorns that hurt his bare feet.  But he was running for his life.  Six miles away there was a river.  If he could get to that, he might escape.

He almost flew over the ground.  At first he did not turn his head round.  When he had run about three miles, he glanced back.  Most of the Indians had lost ground.  The best runners were ahead of the others.  One Indian, swifter than all the rest, was only about a hundred yards behind him.  This man had a spear in his hand to kill Colter as soon as he should be near enough.

[Illustration]

Poor Colter now ran harder than ever to get away from this Indian.  At last he was only about a mile from the river.  He looked back, and saw the swift Indian only twenty yards away, with his spear ready to throw.

It was of no use for Colter to keep on running.  He turned round and faced the swift runner, who was about to throw his spear.  Colter spread his arms wide, and stood still.

The Indian was surprised at this.  He tried to stop running, so as to kill the white man with his spear.  But he had already run himself nearly to death, and, when he tried to stop quickly, he lost his balance, and fell forward to the ground.  His lance stuck in the earth, and broke in two.

Colter quickly pulled the pointed end of the spear out of the ground and killed the fallen Indian.  Then he turned and ran on toward the river.

The other Indians were coming swiftly behind; but, as they passed the place where the first one lay dead, each of them stopped a moment to howl over him, after their custom.  This gave Colter a little more time.  He reached a patch of woods near the river.  He ran through this to the river, and jumped in He swam toward a little island.

Logs and brush had floated down the river, and lodged across the island.  This driftwood had formed a great raft.  Colter dived under this raft.  He swam to a place where he could push his head up to get air, and still be hidden by the brush.