"

"My brother's heart is dark, and, looking through it, he sees nothing
but gloom, where I see sunshine," returned the chief.

"That is, I am to understand, you are in love, and uncle thinks it is
an exploded fallacy," said Edward, laughing; for, in truth, he was in a
merry mood, and his uncle's mishaps did not have a tendency to lessen
it in the least.

"It is nonsense, all nonsense," said the trapper.

"Hist!" said the chief, laying his finger on his lip, "there is large
game approaching!--there! I hear it again: have your arrows in
readiness," he continued, after a moment's pause.

"Deer, perhaps," said the trapper, "it comes in leaps; I hear it
distinctly."

"Yes, deer," said the chief, drawing his bow to his shoulder as a noble
buck bounded in sight, with his tongue protruding from his mouth, and
his eyes had a wild look of agony and terror, such as is only seen at a
moment of despair.

"Chased by a wolf! let the deer pass and shoot the pursuer," said the
trapper; but, scarcely were the words spoken, when a giant form covered
with hair, but bearing in form a semblance to humanity, came bounding
after, clearing from ten to twelve feet at every bound. On he came,
and, at the base of the knoll on which they stood, overtook his prey,
and grasping it by the throat, with one hand dealt it a succession of
furious blows on the head which knocked it down, when choking it until
life was extinct, he stood upright contemplating his prey.

They had instinctively dropped their arrows when they saw the pursuer;
and Whirlwind motioning the others to keep still, glided on towards the
singular creature, slipping from tree to tree until within a few rods
of him, when, taking from beneath his tunic his lasso, which he always
carried with him, he cut a circle with it in the air, then giving it a
throw, it quickly descended, girdling the strange being in its fold.
With an unearthly yell, he attempted to free himself from its coil.
Unfortunately it did not confine either arm, as the chief hoped it
would, and the creature finding it could neither break the stout hide
nor gnaw it off, sprang with ferocity at his captor, who had just
succeeded in fastening the other end of the lasso to a tree, and before
he had time to get out of the way, seized and threw him on the snow
with terrific force.

Howe saw the chief at the mercy of the monster, and in a moment an
arrow winged its flight, burying itself in its shoulder, causing the
m