n lives with blood to be shed,
and I with strength to shed it."

"Thee speaks like a man!" said Nathan, grasping the soldier's hand, and
fairly crushing it in his gripe,--"that is to say," he continued,
suddenly letting go his hold, and seeming somewhat abashed at the fervour
of his sympathy, "like a man, according to thee own sense of matters and
things. But do thee be content; thee poor maid is alive, and like to be
so; and that thee may be assured of it, I will soon tell thee the thing
that is on my mind. Friend, do thee answer me a question,--Has thee any
enemy among the Injuns?--that is to say, any reprobate white man like
this Abel Doe,--who would do thee a wrong?"

The soldier started with surprise, and replied in the negative.

"Has thee no foe, then, at home, whom thee has theeself wronged to that
point that he would willingly league with murdering Injuns to take thee
life?"

"I have my enemies, doubtless, like all other men," said Roland, "but
none so basely, so improbably malignant."

"Verily, then, thee makes me in a perplexity as before," said Nathan;
"for as truly as thee stands before me, so truly did I see, that night
when I left thee at the ruins, and crawled through the Injun lines, a
white man that sat at a fire with Abel Doe, the father of the maid Telie,
apart from the rest, and counselled with him how best to sack the cabin,
without killing the two women. Truly, friend, it was a marvel to myself,
there being so many of the murdering villains, that they did us so little
mischief: but, truly, it was because of the women. And, truly, there was
foul knavery between these two men; for I heard high words and chaffering
between them, as concerning a price or reward which Abel Doe claimed of
the other for the help he was rendering him, in snapping thee up, with
thee kinswoman. Truly, thee must not think I was mistaken; for seeing the
man's red shawl round his head gleaming in the fire, and not knowing
there was any one nigh him (for Abel Doe lay flat upon the earth), a
wicked thought came into my head; 'for, truly,' said I, 'this man is the
chief, and, being alone, a man might strike him with a knife from behind
the tree he rests against, and being killed, his people will fly in fear,
without any more blood-shed;' but creeping nearer, I saw that he was but
a white man in disguise; and so, having listened awhile, to hear what I
could, and hearing what I have told thee, I crept away on my journey."

Th