t the rifle fall. My father knows, for when the
wound-fever was upon him he said strange things, and made me go away
when I came near."

Catlett was silent, busy with his thoughts, and when he started he saw
Areotha's eyes fixed upon him.

"The brute may know," he said. "I wish I could wrest the secret from
him."

"Fair Face will not kill him, then?" said the girl, pleading for the
life of the scourge of the settlements. "When the right time comes he
will tell."

"That time, in his opinion, will never come. When Jim Girty hates, he
hates forever."

"But will Fair Face spare him?"

"I would not spare the wolf that has trailed me for years, nor would I
be lenient with the hound that has spilled the blood of women and their
little ones. Wolf and hound is this very man whom you have called father
these many years."

"He is very bad!" the girl said, dropping her eyes. "_But he knows!_"

"Then for your sake I will not slay him, save in self defense. Otherwise
on sight would I shoot the human blood-hound."

Before Harvey Catlett had ceased to speak a pair of arms encircled his
neck, and he felt hot kisses on his face.

Areotha had conquered him.

"We part here," he said, gently releasing himself.

"Does Fair Face go to trail the Whirlwind?"

"I go to wrench Kate Merriweather from his grasp. This is my sole
mission; then back to Mad Anthony, to fight in the battle near at hand."

"And Areotha?"

"Go to the camp over the river, and tell Wolf Cap what I have done."

A pallor of fear and distrust came over the girl's face.

"He hates Areotha, and the young men do not like her."

"Do not fear the tall hunter now," Harvey said.

"Does he like Areotha?" she cried, brightening up. "She often dreams
about him, but a shadow comes between us, and in his place is the
Whirlwind and his home."

"You need not fear him, though he may act strangely sometimes. He will
protect you from the two young men of the party. You may be of
assistance to the fugitives. Stay with them until I come. Go, little
one. God bless you."

They parted in the glen, and Harvey Catlett did not stir until the wood
witch had vanished from his sight.

"I believe it stronger than ever, now," he said. "I hope it may be so.
Jim Girty, I have virtually sworn to spare your life--for on this trail
we are bound to meet--and there is but one woman in the world who could
have made me promise."

A moment later the storm swept glen was not tenanted sa