As he was creeping out of the apartment with his booty, a thought struck
him, which not only arrested his footsteps, but nearly paralized his whole
being. Would not his keeper be made to answer, and perhaps to suffer for
his escape and theft? Of course he would. "Then in the darkness I saw
again," said the old brave, "that old pale-faced mother, weeping for the
loss of her only son," when he immediately returned the cloak to its
place, and with far more difficulty than in his descent, he succeeded in
reaching his attic prison, where he laid himself down, muttering to
himself, "not yet,--poor old pale-face got but one."
They took him to Virginia, where, instead of a trial, they gave him about
the same liberty they do their slaves. He staid one winter; but when the
spring opened, the fire of the red man took possession of him, and when
sent to the forest to chop wood, he took a bee-line for his former
residence. But what was he to do for food? With a rifle, he could live
happily in the woods, but he had none; so after considering the matter, he
said to himself, "Me _must_ get a rifle," and instantly started for the
highway. The first cabin he saw, he entered in great apparent excitement,
and told the woman of the house, that he had seen a "big deer in the
woods, and wanted a rifle to shoot it.
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