ompany Oliver to the chief; should
they not do so, it might show want of confidence, and Oliver declared
that he would die fighting for her sooner than allow her to be carried
off. She at first hesitated, but when Oliver told her what the chief
had said, she consented to accompany him. Holding each other fast by
the hand they set out, no one even addressing them till they reached the
chief's wigwam. Oncagua stood at the entrance waiting for them; he
gazed with a fond look at the young girl for some minutes without
speaking.

"Do you leave me willingly?" he asked at length, in a tone of grief.
She burst into tears. "Had I not found my white brother, I would have
remained with you, and tended you in sickness and old age," she said,
"but now I desire to go where he goes, and to dwell with those of my own
colour."

"Go, my child, go, the Great Spirit will have it so--and when you are
far away, Oncagua will dream that you are happy with those of your own
kindred and race." As he spoke, he entered his wigwam; quickly
returning with a small package carefully done up in opossum skin. "Take
this with you," he said, "it contains the clothes you wore and the chain
you bore round your neck as an infant; it will prove to your grandfather
that you are indeed his daughter's child." Taking the maiden in his
arms, he pressed her to his heart, and then placing her hand in that of
Oliver, told him to hasten back to his friends, as if he doubted his own
resolution to give her up. The rest of the people, who had collected
from all sides, gazed on the paleface maiden and her brother, with
glances of admiration and awe, regarding them as beings of a superior
nature to themselves.

Vaughan and Roger were on the watch to welcome them back; they both felt
that they could not sufficiently thank the young maiden for the service
she had done them, and they wished to express to Oliver their sense of
his courage and boldness.

"I have done nothing that I should be thanked," said Virginia, for by
her rightful name they now called her; "I heard that you were in search
of a white man, and knowing where one was to be found, I took my brother
to him."

The object of their expedition, however, was not yet accomplished; they
knew that Captain Audley was alive, but he and their two friends were
still a long way off, and it might be a hard matter to reach them. Two
days passed by, and they were becoming impatient, for as their stock of
provisi