e handle of his
weapon, he thrust his hand into his bosom, and again drawing forth the
reeking scalp of Donellan, he dashed it furiously in the face of his
prisoner. "Not two hours since," he exclaimed, "I cheered myself with
the thought that the scalp of a De Haldimar was in my pouch. Now,
indeed, do I glory in my mistake. The torture will be a more fitting
death for you."

Had an arm of the insulted soldier been at liberty, the offence would
not have gone unavenged even there; for such was the desperation of his
heart, that he felt he could have hugged the death struggle with his
insolent captor, notwithstanding the fearful odds, nor quitted him
until one or both should have paid the debt of fierce enmity with life.
As it was he could only betray, by his flashing eye, excited look, and
the impatient play of his foot upon the ground, the deep indignation
that consumed his heart.

The tall savage exulted in the mortification he had awakened, and as
his eye glanced insolently from head to foot along his enemy, its
expression told how much he laughed at the impotence of his anger.
Suddenly, however, a change passed over his features. The mocassin of
the officer had evidently attracted his attention, and he now demanded,
in a more serious and imperative tone,--

"Ha! what means this disguise? Who is the wretch whom I have slain,
mistaking him for a nobler victim; and how comes it that an officer of
the English garrison appears here in the garb of a servant? By heaven,
it is so! you are come as a spy into the camp of the Indians to steal
away the councils of the chiefs. Speak, what have you heard?"

With these questions returned the calm and self-possession of the
officer. He at once saw the importance of his answer, on which hung not
merely his own last faint chance of safety, but that also of his
generous deliverer. Struggling to subdue the disgust which he felt at
holding converse with this atrocious monster, he asked in turn,--

"Am I then the only one whom the warriors have overtaken in their
pursuit?"

"There was a woman, the sister of that boy," and he pointed
contemptuously to the young chief who had so recently assailed him, and
who now, in common with his followers, stood impatiently listening to a
colloquy that was unintelligible to all. "Speak truly, was SHE not the
traitress who conducted you here?"

"Had you found me here," returned the officer, with difficulty
repressing his feelings, "there might ha