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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.
When E-chee had secured the feather, which was the very Flamingo Feather given to Réné by Has-se, Réné 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.
Although this aided them, they knew that it also favored the pursuers, whom they felt certain must ere this have started after them, and many an anxious backward glance did Yah-chi-la-ne and E-chee cast over their shoulders as they hastened onward. In this manner, and without mishap, they finally reached the end of the trail at the head of the little lagoon, where their canoes had been left.
As the young warrior, whose person bore every evidence of long and hasty travel, stood silently before him, the old chief said, "I am Micco. Who art thou, and what is thy errand here?" The stranger answered, "I am known as E-chee, and am of that place by the great waters called Seloy. He whom I seek most anxiously among thy people is named to me as thy son, Has-se, the Bow-bearer."
While they were doing this, he, with Has-se and E-chee, busied themselves with the canoes of the Seminoles, of which E-chee showed the hiding-place. In these they drove great holes, so that they would not float; or if they happened to lie in the water they cut them adrift, and pushed them far from the shore.
"Dost thou think an escape may be effected?" asked Réné, 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 Réné 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.
It was exactly like the one that glowed so vividly amid the dark tresses of the young Bow-bearer, and from it hung a slender gold chain, to which was attached a golden pin. Handing it to Has-se, E-chee said, "He who sends thee this token is in danger of speedily losing his life, and he prays that thou wilt come to his rescue."
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 Réné told E-chee of the land of the Alachuas, and described to him how he might reach it.
"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.
An instant later they had vanished in the little thicket from which E-chee had flung his billet of wood into the water on the night of his escape from the Seminoles.
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