but never with such conflicting emotions. What was it that made his heart beat
faster? With a quick movement he lifted the curtain and passed under it.

The room which he entered was circular in shape and furnished with all the
bright colors and luxuriance known to the Indian. Buffalo robes covered the

smooth, hard-packed clay floor; animals, allegorical pictures, and fanciful
Indian designs had been painted on the wall; bows and arrows, shields, strings

of bright-colored beads and Indian scarfs hung round the room. The wall was
made of dried deerskins sewed together and fastened over long poles which were

planted in the ground and bent until the ends met overhead. An oval-shaped
opening let in the light. Through a narrow aperture, which served as a door

leading to a smaller apartment, could be seen a low couch covered with red
blankets, and a glimpse of many hued garments hanging on the wall.

As Isaac entered the room a slendermaiden ran impulsively to him and throwing
her arms round his neck hid her face on his breast. A few broken, incoherent

words escaped her lips. Isaac disengaged himself from the clinging arms and
put her from him. The face raised to his was strikingly beautiful. Oval in

shape, it was as white as his own, with a broad, low brow and regular
features. The eyes were large and dark and they dilated and quickened with a

thousand shadows of thought.
"Myeerah, I am taken again. This time there has been blood shed. The Delaware

chief was killed, and I do not know how many more Indians. The chiefs are all
for putting me to death. I am in great danger. Why could you not leave me in

peace?"
At his first words the maiden sighed and turned sorrowfully and proudly away

from the angry face of the young man. A short silence ensued.
"Then you are not glad to see Myeerah?" she said, in English. Her voice was

music. It rang low, sweet, clear-toned as a bell.
"What has that to do with it? Under some circumstances I would be glad to see

you. But to be dragged back here and perhaps murdered--no, I don't welcome it.
Look at this mark where Crow hit me," said Isaac, passionately, bowing his

head to enable her to see the bruise where the club had struck him.
"I am sorry," said Myeerah, gently.

"I know that I am in great danger from the Delawares."
"The daughter of Tarhe has saved your life before and will save it again."

"They may kill me in spite of you."
"They will not dare. Do not forget that I saved you from the Shawnees. What

did my father say to you?"
"He assured me that he was my friend and that he would protect me from

Wingenund. But I must marry you and become one of the tribe. I cannot do that.
And that is why I am sure they will kill me."

"You are angry now. I will tell you. Myeerah tried hard to win your love, and
when you ran away from her she was proud for a long time. But there was no

singing of birds, no music of the waters, no beauty in anything after you left
her. Life became unbearable without you. Then Myeerah remembered that she was

a daughter of kings. She summoned the bravest and greatest warriors of two
tribes and said to them. "Go and bring to me the paleface, White Eagle. Bring

him to me alive or dead. If alive, Myeerah will smile once more upon her
warriors. If dead, she will look once upon his face and die. Ever since

Myeerah was old enough to remember she has thought of you. Would you wish her
to be inconstant, like the moon?"

"It is not what I wish you to be. It is that I cannot live always without
seeing my people. I told you that a year ago."

"You told me other things in that past time before you ran away. They were
tender words that were sweet to the ear of the Indian maiden. Have you

forgotten them?"
"I have not forgotten them. I am not without feeling. You do not understand.

Since I have been home this last time, I have realized more than ever that I
could not live away from my home."

"Is there any maiden in your old home whom you have learned to love more than
Myeerah?"

He did not reply, but looked gloomily out of the opening in the wall. Myeerah
had placed her hold upon his arm, and as he did not answer the hand tightened

its grasp.
"She shall never have you."

The low tones vibrated with intense feeling, with a deathless resolve. Isaac
laughed bitterly and looked up at her Myeerah's face was pale and her eyes

burned like fire.
"I should not be surprised if you gave me up to the Delawares," said Isaac,

coldly. "I am prepared for it, and I would not care very much. I have
despaired of your ever becoming civilized enough to understand the misery of

my sister and family. Why not let the Indians kill me?"
He knew how to wound her. A quick, shuddery cry broke from her lips. She stood

before him with bowed head and wept. When she spoke again her voice was broken
and pleading.

"You are cruel and unjust. Though Myeerah has Indian blood she is a white
woman. She can feel as your people do. In your anger and bitterness you forget

that Myeerah saved you from the knife of the Shawnees. You forget her
tenderness; you forget that she nursed you when you were wounded. Myeerah has

a heart to break. Has she not suffered? Is she not laughed at, scorned, called
a 'paleface' by the other tribes? She thanks the Great Spirit for the Indian

blood that keep her true. The white man changes his loves and his wives. That
is not an Indian gift."

"No, Myeerah, I did not say so. There is no other woman. It is that I am
wretched and sick at heart. Do you not see that this will end in a tragedy

some day? Can you not realize that we would be happier if you would let me go?
If you love me you would not want to see me dead. If I do not marry you they

will kill me; if I try to escape again they win kill me. Let me go free."
"I cannot! I cannot!" she cried. "You have taught me many of the ways of your

people, but you cannot change my nature."
"Why cannot you free me?"

"I love you, and I will not live without you."
"Then come and go to my home and live there with me," said Isaac, taking the

weeping maiden in his arms. "I know that my people will welcome you."
"Myeerah would be pitied and scorned," she said, sadly, shaking her head.

Isaac tried hard to steel his heart against her, but he was only mortal and he
failed. The charm of her presence influenced him; her love wrung tenderness

from him. Those dark eyes, so proud to all others, but which gazed wistfully
and yearningly into his, stirred his heart to its depths. He kissed the

tear-wet cheeks and smiled upon her.
"Well, since I am a prisoner once more, I must make the best of it. Do not

look so sad. We shall talk of this another day. Come, let us go and find my
little friend, Captain Jack. He remembered me, for he ran out and grasped my

knee and they pulled him away."
CHAPTER VI.

When the first French explorers invaded the northwest, about the year 1615,
the Wyandot Indians occupied the territory between Georgian Bay and the

Muskoka Lakes in Ontario. These Frenchmen named the tribe Huron because of the
manner in which they wore their hair.

At this period the Hurons were at war with the Iroquois, and the two tribes
kept up a bitter fight until in 1649, when the Hurons suffered a decisive

defeat. They then abandoned their villages and sought other hunting grounds.
They travelled south and settled in Ohio along the south and west shores of

Lake Erie. The present site of Zanesfield, named from Isaac Zane, marks the
spot where the largest tribe of Hurons once lived.

In a grove of maples on the banks of a swift little river named Mad River, the
Hurons built their lodges and their wigwams. The stately elk and graceful deer

abounded in this fertilevalley, and countless herds of bison browsed upon the
uplands.

There for mans years the Hurons lived a peaceful and contented life. The long
war cry was not heard. They were at peace with the neighboring tribes. Tarhe,

the Huron chief, attained great influence with the Delawares. He became a
friend of Logan, the Mingo chief.

With the invasion of the valley of the Ohio by the whites, with the march into
the wilderness of that wild-turkey breed of heroes of which Boone, Kenton, the

Zanes, and the Wetzels were the first, the Indian's nature gradually chanced
until he became a fierce and relentless foe.

The Hurons had sided with the French in Pontiac's war, and in the Revolution
they aided the British. They allied themselves with the Mingoes, Delawares and

Shawnees and made a fierce war on the Virginian pioneers. Some powerful
influence must have engendered this implacable hatred in these tribes,

particularly in the Mingo and the Wyandot.
The war between the Indians and the settlers along the Pennsylvania and West