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The text describes the pods as having a hole on each side, which, it was afterwards learnt, were for putting thongs, strings or twigs on which to dry the pods.
West, revolver close at hand, cut thongs from the caribou skins. He tied his captive hand and foot, then removed his moccasins and duffles. From the fire he raked out a live coal and put it on a flat chip. This he brought across the room. "Changed yore mind any? Where's the girl?" he demanded. Onistah looked at him, impassive as only an Indian can be. "Still sulky, eh? We'll see about that."
She was then thrown shrieking on her back, her bare legs lifted high, and tied to a short piece of pole just in front of the ankles; one man seized each end of this, a third awaiting the governor's orders to strike the soles. In his hand he had a short-handled lash made of twisted thongs from Tafilált, well soaked in water.
The wanton foot had scarcely touched his ribs, when the hunter sprang up, as if by galvanic action, the thongs flying from his body in fifty spiral fragments. With a bound he leaped to his rifle; and, clutching it he knew it was empty struck the astonished Frenchman a blow upon the head. The latter fell heavily to the earth.
I drew up my knees, twisted over on the hard rock, and lay flat on my belly. Then I drew up my hands and let my face rest on them, like a dog with his head on his paws. And then, keeping my body perfectly still, and with as little movement of the jaws as possible, I sought the tough thongs with my teeth. That was a tedious job and a distasteful one.
Often the feet are so benumbed with the cold that, at the time, no pain is felt, and it is only when the sufferer comes to take off his shoes, that he finds the thongs have disappeared in a mass of swelling. We had no fears as to the ice on the lake bearing us, so we merrily slid on to it, and proceeded faster than we had done since we left the camp.
Tim kept a watchful eye on our prisoner, who, though badly wounded, might still, he thought it probable, attempt to make his escape. He had not spoken as yet, but I observed his dark eye wandering on every side, either in the hope of rescue, or as if considering in what direction he should fly, should he be able to free himself from the thongs by which he was secured to the mule.
His arms were then secured behind his back with other deer-skin thongs, and another passed round his ankle and given to Alfred. "You were right, Malachi," said Captain Sinclair, "how he contrived to twist himself out of our grasp I can not imagine; but he certainly would have been off, probably have broken our heads before he went."
He was clad in a smock, or jacket, of sea-parrot feathers, which came down to his seal-skin boots. In one hand he held a short spear, in the other several thongs to which were attached bits of ivory. He seemed not in the least alarmed, but, on the contrary, much disposed to be friendly. "Karosha!" called out John to him. "All right, all right, all right!"
I cannot better describe their vehicle, than by comparing it to a canoe mounted on four wheels, connected by a long perch, with a coachbox at the bow, and three gig bodies hung athwart ships, or slung inside of the canoe, by leather thongs. At the moment we were starting, Mr -came close to me and whispered, "Do you think your ship will still be in the river?"
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