In a moment the whisper came again, “Ta-lah-lo-ko.”

“Who art thou?” asked Rene, in the Indian language.

“I am E-chee from Seloy, where I saw thee when thou first set foot on the land of my people.  Dost thou not remember?”

“Art thou not E-chee the Seminole?”

“To all appearance I am become one of these runaways, but my heart is that of a true man, and I seek only an opportunity to escape from them and to rejoin my own people.  If indeed any of my people be left alive,” he added, bitterly.

“Dost thou think an escape may be effected?” asked Rene, eagerly, a new hope dawning in his breast.

“I know not, but I can try, and should I fail, death itself were better than life with these Seminole dogs.”

Then Rene asked where they were and what E-chee knew of Cat-sha’s plans.

He was told that they were in the great Okeefenokee swamp, even as he had suspected.  On the morrow they were to leave the canoes and find a trail that led to the Seminole village, hidden in its most impenetrable depths.  When they reached it E-chee believed, from fragments of conversation he had overheard, that there was to be a great feast, and that the prisoners were to be tortured.

Then Rene told E-chee of the land of the Alachuas, and described to him how he might reach it.  This done, he asked the young Indian to reach a hand into the breast of his doublet, where, within its lining, he would find a feather with a slender chain and pin attached to it.  This, on account of his bonds, he could not get at with his own hands.

When E-chee had secured the feather, which was the very Flamingo Feather given to Rene by Has-se, Rene told him to guard it with his life; and, if he succeeded in escaping from the Seminoles, to convey it with all speed to the land of the Alachuas.  There he was to present it to any of Micco’s tribe, but in particular to one named Has-se the Bow-bearer, if he could discover him.  He was to tell them of the sad plight of the prisoners, and beg of them to send a party to their rescue.

Hardly had he finished these instructions when the snapping of a twig near by caused E-chee to spring to his feet and pour out a torrent of abuse upon Rene, at the same time giving him a kick that drew from the prostrate lad an exclamation of pain.  It was quite as much a groan of despair; for he could not understand the action of the young Indian, and imagined him to be a vile traitor who had only gained his confidence in order to betray it.

Directly, however, he heard the voice of Cat-sha demanding of E-chee why he thus abused the prisoners.  To this the young Indian made answer that he had discovered that this one, who was the most troublesome of the three, had nearly succeeded in loosening his bonds.  This he would doubtless have accomplished had not he, E-chee, been possessed of the forethought to examine them as he made his rounds.