they reached the first bend
of the Miami--the place agreed on for the meeting between Girty and
Wild-cat.

As the latter chief and his party had not yet made their appearance,
Girty and his band went ashore with their prisoners, and took shelter
under one of the largest trees in the vicinity, to await their coming.
Of this expected meeting, the captives as yet knew nothing; and it was
of course not without considerable surprise, mingled with a saddened
joy, that they observed the approach, some half an hour later, of their
friends and enemies.

Ella, on first perceiving their canoes silently advancing up the stream,
started up with a cry of joy, which was the next moment saddened by the
thought that she was only welcoming her relatives to a miserable doom.
Still it was a joy to know they were yet alive; and as the sinking heart
is ever buoyed up with hope, until completely engulfed in the dark
billows of despair--so she could not, or would not, altogether banish
the animating feeling, that something might yet interfere to save them
all from destruction. As the canoes touched the shore, Ella sprung
forward to greet her adopted mother and father; but her course was
suddenly checked by one of the Indian warriors, who, grasping her
somewhat roughly by the arm, with a gutteral grunt and fierce gesture of
displeasure, pointed her back to her former place. Ella, downcast and
frightened, tremblingly retraced her steps, and could only observe the
pale faces and fatigued looks of her relatives and the little girl at a
distance; but she saw enough to send a thrill of anguish to her heart;
and Girty, who perceived the expressions of agony her sweet features now
displayed, at once advanced to her, and, modulating his voice somewhat
from its usual tones, said:

"Grieve not, Ella. I will endeavor to procure you an interview with your
friends."

The kindness manifested in the tones of the speaker, caused Ella to look
up with a start of surprise and hope; and thinking he might perhaps be
moved to mercy, by a direct appeal to his better feelings, she replied,
energetically, with a flush on her now animated countenance:

"Oh, sir! I perceive you are not lost to all feelings of humanity." Here
the compression of Girty's lips, and a knitting together of his shaggy
brows, warned Ella she was treading on dangerous ground, and she quickly
added: "All of us are liable to err; and there may be circumstances,
unknown to others, that force u