he next day. The
prowler, finding it impossible to elude the officer in the position
in which he was then gliding, suddenly started to his feet, and
sought to escape detection in flight; but Ronayne, who was a very
quick runner, and moreover wore moccasins as well as his men, soon
came up with him, when the Indian rapidly turned, and, upraising
his arm, prepared to strike a desperate blow at the chest of the
unarmed youth. But even while the knife was balancing, as if to
select some vulnerable part, another figure started suddenly from
behind a part of the awning, close to which they all were, and
grasping the arm of the assailant, dexterously wrested the weapon
from his hand, and flung it far away from him upon the glacis.

All this was the work of a moment. The spy turned fiercely upon
the intruder, and, saying something fiercely and authoritatively
to him in Indian, strode leisurely away. Ronayne could not be
mistaken. The first was Pee-to-tum, and even if he could not have
traced the graceful outline of the well--knit figure, the soft and
musical voice which replied to the scorning threat of the fierce
chief sufficiently denoted it to be Wau-nan-gee.

"Heavens! how is this? Wau-nan-gee!" he asked, sternly, yet trembling
with excitement in every limb, "why came you here? Why have you
saved my life? Speak! are you not my enemy? Where is my wife?"

All these questions were asked with the greatest volubility, and
in a state of mind so confused by the host of feelings the presence
of the young Indian inspired, that he scarcely comprehended the
latter as he replied:--

"All! love him too much, Ronayne wife--love him Ronayne
too--Wau-nan-gee friend, dear friend--Wau-nan-gee die for him--Ronayne
wife in Ingin camp--pale--pale, very much!"

"Answer me," said Ronayne, grasping him by the shoulder in pure
excitement, "tell me truly, Wau-nan-gee--I will not hurt you if
you do--but tell me, on the truth of an Indian warrior, is not my
wife your wife? did she not go to you? does she not love you?"

"Ugh?" exclaimed the boy, with an expression of deep melancholy in
his manner; "Wau-nan-gee love him too much, but not make him wife.
Spose him not Ronayne wife, then Wau-nan-gee; die happy spose him
Wau-nan-gee wife. Feel him dere, my friend--feel him heart--oh much
sick for Maria--but Wau-nan-gee Ronayne friend no hurt him wife."

"Can all this be possible?" he exclaimed, vehemently to himself.
"Oh, what a noble, what a gene