of her.

The spot on which he now rested was covered with thick brushwood,
closely interwoven at their tops, but affording sufficient space
beneath for a temporary close concealment; so that, unless some Indian
should touch him with his foot, there was little seeming probability of
his being discovered by the eye. Under this he crept, and lay,
breathless and motionless, with his head raised from the ground, and
his ear on the stretch for the slightest noise. For several minutes he
remained in this position, vainly seeking to catch the sound of a
voice, or the fall of a footstep; but the most deathlike silence had
succeeded to the fierce yellings that had so recently rent the forest.
At times he fancied he could distinguish faint noises in the direction
of the encampment; and so certain was he of this, he at length came to
the conclusion that the Indians, either baffled in their search, had
relinquished the pursuit, or, having encountered Oucanasta, had been
thrown on a different scent. His first intention had been to lie
concealed until the following night, when the warriors, no longer on
the alert, should leave the path once more open to him; but now that
the conviction of their return was strong on his mind, he changed his
determination, resolving to make the best of his way to the fort with
the aid of the approaching dawn. With this view he partly withdrew his
body from beneath its canopy of underwood; but, scarcely had he done
so, when a hundred tongues, like the baying of so many blood-hounds,
again rent the air with their wild cries, which seemed to rise up from
the very bowels of the earth, and close to the appalled ear of the
young officer.

Scarcely conscious of what he did, Captain de Haldimar grasped one of
his pistols, for he fancied he felt the hot breathing of human life
upon his cheek. With a sickly sensation of fear, he turned to satisfy
himself whether it was not an illusion of his heated imagination. What,
however, was his dismay, when he beheld bending over him a dark and
heavy form, the outline of which alone was distinguishable in the deep
gloom in which the ravine remained enveloped! Desperation was in the
heart of the excited officer: he cocked his pistol; but scarcely had
the sharp ticking sound floated on the air, when he felt a powerful
hand upon his chest; and, with as much facility as if he had been a
child, was he raised by that invisible hand to his feet. A dozen
warriors now sprang to t