"Beaten!" said the Kentuckian, opening his eyes; "cut off the _b_, and
say the savages made a dinner of 'em, and you'll be nearer the true
history of the matter. It's but two months ago; and so I suppose the news
of the affa'r hadn't got into East Virginnie when you started. Well,
Captain, the long and short of it is,--the cunnel _war_ beaten and
exterminated, and that on a hard run from the fight he had hunted hard
after. How many ever got back safe agin to Pittsburg, I never could
rightly h'ar, but what I know is, that thar war dozens of prisoners
beaten to death by the squaws and children, and that old Cunnel Crawford
himself war put to the double torture and roasted alive; and, I reckon,
if he war'nt eaten, it war only because he war too old to be tender."

"Horrible!" said the young soldier, muttering half to himself, though not
in tones so low but that the Kentuckian caught their import; "and I must
expose my poor Edith to fall into the power of such fiends and monsters!"

"Ay, Captain," said Bruce, "thar's the thing that sticks most in
the heart of them that live in the wilderness and have wives and
daughters;--to think of _their_ falling into the hands of the brutes, who
murder and scalp a woman just as readily as a man. As to their torturing
them, that's not so certain, but the brutes arn't a bit too good for it;
and I did h'ar of their burning one poor woman at Sandusky. But now,
Captain, if you are anxious to have the young lady, your sister, in
safety, h'yar's the place to stick up your tent-poles, h'yar, in this
very settlement, whar the Injuns never trouble us, never coming within
ten miles of us. Thar's as good land here as on Bear's Grass; and we
shall be glad of your company. It is not often we have a rich man to take
luck among us. Howsomever, I won't deceive you, if you will go to the
Ohio; I hold, thar's no danger on the trace for either man or woman."

"My good friend," said Roland, "you seem to labour under two errors in
respect to me which it is fitting I should correct. In the first place,
the lady whom you have several times called, I know not why, my sister,
claims no such near relationship, being only my cousin."

"Why, sure!" said the colonel, "someone told me so, and thar's a strong
family likeness."

"There should be," said the youth, "since our fathers were twin brothers,
and resembled each other in all particulars, in body, in mind, and, as I
may say, in fortune. They were alike in t