The Hidden Children

Two women unknown to each other, in the early history of the nation, decide to make of their babies "hidden children," in accordance with the Indian custom of giving children to foster-parents until maturity. A girl and a boy thus "hidden," when informed of the truth, returned to their people and were expected by marrying to bring a fresh spirit into the tribe. Marie Loskiel, hard beset by the St. Regis Indians, gives her child, Euan, before she dies, to Guy Johnson, an English Colonial officer. He and Mayaro, a Sagamore of the Mohicans, who is Johnson's chief scout, take charge of the child. Jeanne de Contrecoeur, wife of the commandant of the French garrison at Lake George, amuses the officers and their wives by her gift of clairvoyance. She implores her husband not to go out to battle with the Indians, as she has a premonition that he will be killed, and that the child to be born will never know a father. But duty calls Capt. de Contrecoeur, and he is slain by the Iroquois. Jeanne herself is captured by them, and taken to the stronghold of the Six Nations at Catherinestown. The Erie sorcerer Amochol is about to sacrifice Jeanne's new-born daughter, Lois, to the Moon Witch, but she makes of Lois a "hidden child," sending her to a colonist named Calvert. Jeanne is about to be killed by Amochol when she correctly interprets a dream for him, and she becomes the White Sorceress of the Iroquois. Each year Jeanne sends secretly to little Lois a pair of moccasins, embroidered with a symbol indicating that she is a hidden child. Calvert cannot read the inscription, but when he dies he tells Lois of her origin, and it becomes the girl's one thought to find the trail to Catherinestown where her mother is held captive. Euan Loskiel, grown to manhood, is given a commission in Morgan's rifles as Lieutenant and Chief of Indian Scouts. General Sullivan wishes to crush the tribes of the Six Nations in the "Long House" of the Iroquois Confederacy, and the only man who can lead him to Catherinestown is Mayaro the Sagamore, whom Euan brings to the General, and the Sagamore becomes the trusted messenger of the northern Colonial army. Lois disguises herself as a camp-follower in rags to follow Euan, Mayaro and Lieut. Boyd to Catherinestown. Mayaro saves her from the insults of a drunken officer, and though she has thus far distrusted all men, she has complete faith in the Sagamore. He reads the message of the moccasins, discovering that she is a hidden child, and protects he