ou
not, Master Wayland, that the lives of helpless women and children may
depend upon our haste? And you hold us here in idleness while you
wander along the lake-shore like a moonstruck boy!"

Before I could answer these harsh words, the girl stepped lightly to my
side, and standing there, her hand upon my arm, smiled back into his
angry eyes. I do not think he had even perceived her presence until
that moment; for he stopped perplexed.

"And am I not worth the saving, Monsieur le Capitaine," she questioned,
pouting her lips, "that you should blame him so harshly for having
stopped to rescue me?"

His harsh glance of angry resentment softened as he gazed upon her.

"Ah! was that it, then?" he asked, in gentler tones. "But who are you?
Surely you are not unattended in this wilderness?"

"I am from Fort Dearborn," she answered, "and though only a girl,
Monsieur, I have penetrated to the great West even farther than has
Captain Wells."

"How know you my name?"

"Mrs. Heald told me she believed you would surely come when you learned
of our plight at the Fort,--it was for that she despatched the man
Burns with the message,--and she described you so perfectly that I knew
at once who you must be. There are not so many white men travelling
toward Dearborn now as to make mistake easy."

"And the Fort?" he asked, anxiously. "Is it still garrisoned, or have
we come too late?"

"It was safely held two days ago," she answered, "although hundreds of
savages in war-paint were then encamped without, and holding powwow
before the gate. No attack had then been made, yet the officers talked
among themselves of evacuating."

For a moment the stern soldier seemed to have forgotten her, his eyes
fastened upon the western horizon.

"The fools!" he muttered to himself, seemingly unconscious that he
spoke aloud; "yet if I can but reach there in time, my knowledge of
Indian nature may accomplish much."

He turned quickly, with a sharp glance over his military force.

"We delay no longer. Jordan, do you give this lady your horse for
to-day's journey, and go you forward on foot with the Miamis. Watch
them closely, and mark well everything in your front as you move."

"But, Captain Wells," she insisted, as he turned away, "I am
exceedingly hungry, and doubt not this youth would also be much the
better for a bit of food."

"It will have to be eaten as you travel, then," he answered, not
unkindly, but with all his thought