On drawing near, our leader got off his horse, and ordered us also to dismount.  We then approached the chief, to whom he described, as I concluded, the mode in which I had been taken prisoner.  The clever way in which I had hidden myself, and the efforts I had made to escape, elicited no small amount of admiration from the chief.  I could, of course, only guess at what he said, but I caught a word here and there; and he looked down on me and smiled with such benignity as his stern features were capable of assuming.  At all events, I thought that these people, whatever they might do, would not torture me or put me to death.