suspicions
from Helen; and the only effect they had produced on him was causing
him, at that time, to prohibit his children from venturing unguarded
into the wood, more strictly than he would otherwise have done.

CHAPTER V.

'Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath
shalt thou restrain.' PSA. lxxvi,10.

We will now, for a time, leave the settlement--where the sad news of
the capture and supposed death of Henrich had spread a general gloom
and consternation--and follow the subject of their pitying grief, from
the time that he was seized and made a prisoner in the hands of the
savages. They did not slay him; for the Lord had work and service in
store for the young missionary, and he suffered not a hair of his head
to be hurt.

Coubitant--for he was one of those whose patient vigilance had, at
length, been crowned by success--and his companion had hurried him at
their greatest speed through the wood, to the spot where their
temporary camp was pitched, and where several others of their tribe
awaited their return. A few minutes sufficed to remove the matting
that formed their tents, and to collect their arms and utensils; but
Coubitant well knew that the child who had escaped his cruelty would
soon alarm the settlers, and that an instant pursuit would follow. He
therefore, devised plan to deceive, and, perhaps altogether to check
the white men, at least for a time, by making them believe that the
death of the captive had already taken place. He would have instantly
gratified the feelings of his cruel and revengeful heart, and have shed
the innocent blood of Rodolph's son to atone for the death of his
friend, but that he feared to disappoint his Chief, who so earnestly
desired to imbrue his own hands in the blood of the slayer. He,
therefore, resolved on the stratagem we have described. He stripped off
the captive's tunic, and, after piercing it several times with his
dagger, he opened a vein in his own arm with the same weapon, and let
the hot blood flow freely over the torn vesture.

This done, he smiled a demon's smile, as he cast the tunic on the
ground, and thought with malignant pleasure of the anguish that its
discovery would occasion to his hated foe.

Henrich gazed in trembling wonder at this act; and when Coubitant again
approached him to bind his hands, he believed that he was about to
plunge that blood-stained knife into his beating heart. He was young,
and life was new a