Rene also gratified the young Alachua warriors by taking them inside
the fort, and showing them, as well as he was able by the light of
lanterns, the great "thunder-bows" whose voices they had heard that
morning when still many miles away.
It was past midnight before the visitors were ready to depart, and then
Rene and Has-se bade each other farewell with swelling hearts; for they
had learned to love each other more dearly than brothers, and they
feared they might never meet again.
One by one the canoes of the Alachuas glided away from the water gate
noiselessly as so many thistle-downs, and were instantly lost to view
in the night mist that hung like a soft gray curtain over the whole
river. Rene watched the last one depart, and then going to his own
room, he flung himself on a couch and was almost instantly buried in a
profound slumber, so thoroughly exhausted was he by the exciting labors
of the previous day.
The morning was well advanced when he awoke. For some moments he
stared about him in bewilderment, unable to account for the absence of
the open-air surroundings of his late life. As soon as he realized
where he was, he sprang up, dressed, ate a hurried breakfast, and went
to his uncle's room.
He found the commandant feeling so much stronger and better that he was
sitting up for the first time in weeks, and, in a large easy-chair by
the window, was impatiently awaiting his nephew.
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