et. She grasped the hand
of her companion; and hurrying, though not without caution, along the
path, again stood on the brow of the ravine through which they had
previously passed.

"The Saganaw must go alone," she whispered. "The red skins are close
upon our trail, but they will find only an Indian woman, when they
expect a pale face. Oucanasta will save her friend."

Captain de Haldimar did as he was desired. Clinging to the bushes that
lined the face of the precipitous descent, he managed once more to gain
the bed of the ravine. For a moment he paused to listen to the sounds
of his pursuers, whose footsteps were now audible on the eminence he
had just quitted; and then, gathering himself up for the leap that was
to enable him to clear the rivulet, he threw himself heavily forward.
His feet alighted upon an elevated and yielding substance, that gave
way with a crashing sound that echoed far and near throughout the
forest, and he felt himself secured as if in a trap. Although
despairing of escape, he groped with his hands to discover what it was
that thus detained him, and found he had fallen through a bark canoe,
the bottom of which had been turned upwards. The heart of the fugitive
now sank within him: there could be no doubt that his retreat was
intercepted. The canoe had been placed there since he last passed
through the ravine: and it was evident, from the close and triumphant
yell that followed the rending of the frail bark, such a result had
been anticipated.

Stunned as he was by the terrific cries of the savages, and confused as
were his ideas, Captain de Haldimar had still presence of mind to
perceive the path itself offered him no further security. He therefore
quitted it altogether, and struck, in an oblique direction, up the
opposite face of the ravine. Scarcely had he gone twenty yards, when he
heard the voices of several Indians conversing earnestly near the canoe
he had just quitted; and presently afterwards he could distinctly hear
them ascending the opposite brow of the ravine by the path he recently
congratulated himself on having abandoned. To advance or to recede was
now equally impracticable; for, on every side, he was begirt by
enemies, into whose hands a single false step must inevitably betray
him. What would he not have given for the presence of Oucanasta, who
was so capable of advising him in this difficulty! but, from the moment
of his descending into the ravine, he had utterly lost sight