ere in
some distant part of the garden, and saw her not, to steal into
the summer-house. All clue, then, would have been lost, and the
appearance of the Indians lurking about the cottage would naturally
have impressed you with the belief that she had been carried off
by them. How were they dressed?"

"Even as you have described the party that pursued, or affected to
pursue you yesterday," exclaimed Mrs. Headley, "in the war paint
of the Winnebagoes. I know it well, for their chiefs have often
been in council here."

"Just so," pursued Ronayne. "Is it not then reasonable to
suppose--mark, I do not weakly seek to justify the wrong which
but too certainly exists, but I would dissect each circumstance
until the truth be known--is it not, I repeat, reasonable to suppose
that, even if Maria wanted an evidence of her abduction, she would
have gone towards the cottage rather than the summer-house. It
would have been easy enough then for the Indians who, I have no
doubt, were the same party I encountered at Hardscrabble, to have
carried her off before any assistance could arrive from the fort.
On the contrary, she was certain of discovery in the summer-house
into which she had been seen to enter, and every part of which she
would have known would have been most strictly searched. Wherefore,
too, the object in keeping her confined, as it were, in a dungeon,
when the free air was open to her, and the boundless wilderness
offered health and freedom?"

"I have thought of all that, Ronayne," replied Mrs. Headley, "and
I cannot but suppose that this retreat was a temporary one. In all
probability, when Wau-nan-gee issued from the summer-house, he was
in the act of proceeding to make his preparations for finishing
the work just begun, but seeing that I had not yet left the grounds,
waited to know what my movements would be before he took any farther
step. My stationing the boat's crew before the gate, where they
could command the whole of the view between the cottage and the
summer-house, acted as a check upon them, and little dreaming, I
presume, that I had discovered the trap-door, they had intended,
on my departure across the river, to avail themselves of my absence,
and bear her off into the forest. As for the deep grief which I
witnessed on entering the summer-house, that may easily be accounted
for. A woman of refinement, education, and generous susceptibility,
however unhappily carried away she may be by a resistless, and,