a lady's use, which is at your service." Then turning to
the other he said:--"Bring up the led horse for the lady," and his
companion started as directed. The speaker then continued, again directing
his discourse to Eveline:

"By the appearance of your apparel, I should suppose you had not found the
underbrush of the forest a very pleasant impediment to travel; your face
and hands, too, I perceive, have suffered severely."

"Yes, I have found darkness and the brush and thorns rather difficult
opponents to contend with;" saying which, she glanced at her habiliments
for the first time, and their tattered appearance caused her to blush; but
in explanation, she narrated the adventures of the night, except such parts
as related to the cave and her captors, which she deemed it best not to
divulge, not knowing into whose hands she was falling. As she finished the
narrative, the other man came up with the horses, and she was assisted to
mount the one adapted to her use, when the three immediately started on
their journey.

We have only to say--and the reader, most likely, has already anticipated
us--that these two men were none other than Bill and Dick disguised, who
had accidentally fallen in with her in that unexpected place, to the great
delight of the former, and with ill-concealed disappointment on the part of
the latter. They had intended to remain in the woods that day, and had just
left the led horse for the purpose of making observations, when the
unexpected event caused them to change their original intention, and set
out on their journey for Virginia immediately. Little dreamed Eveline that
she had fallen into such hands--that these, her seeming friends, were the
very villains she had heard plotting their schemes of rascality and crime.
How different from what they were would have been her feelings, had she
known the truth in relation to her situation!

* * * * *

'Squire Williams and his party had no difficulty in finding the way into
the swamp, as pointed out in Bill's note, and ere the sun was two hours in
the heavens they had passed the marshy place spoken of, and were on the
island, where, if the note of information was correct, they might expect to
find Duffel and the stolen horse.

Here the 'Squire directed the men to remain while he went forward to
reconnoiter and ascertain, if possible, where the animal and the villain
were. He returned in less than an hour, bringing the i