arating,
Rivers, to whom the whole country was familiar, taking a shorter route
across the forest, by which the sinuosities of the main road were
generally avoided, entered, after the progress of a few miles, into the
very path pursued by Colleton, and which, had it been chosen by his
pursuers in the first instance, might have entirely changed the result
of the pursuit. In taking this course it was not the thought of the
outlaw to overtake the individual whose blood he so much desired; but,
with an object which will have its development as we continue, he came
to the cottage at the very time when, having succeeded in overcoming the
flames, Ralph was employed in a task almost as difficult--that of
reassuring the affrighted inmates, and soothing them against the
apprehension of farther danger.

With a caution which old custom had made almost natural in such cases,
Rivers, as he approached the cross-roads, concealed his horse in the
cover of the woods, advanced noiselessly, and with not a little
surprise, to the cottage, whose externals had undergone no little
alteration from the loss of the shutter, the blackened marks, visible
enough in the moonlight, around the window-frame, and the general look
of confusion which hung about it. A second glance made out the steed of
our traveller, which he approached and examined. The survey awakened all
those emotions which operated upon his spirit when referring to his
successful rival; and, approaching the cottage with extreme caution, he
took post for a while at one of the windows, the shutter of which,
partially unclosed, enabled him to take in at a glance the entire
apartment.

He saw, at once, the occasion which had induced the presence, in this
situation, of his most hateful enemy; and the thoughts were strangely
discordant which thronged and possessed his bosom. At one moment he had
drawn his pistol to his eye--his finger rested upon the trigger, and the
doubt which interposed between the youth and eternity, though it
sufficed for his safety then, was of the most slight and shadowy
description. A second time did the mood of murder savagely possess his
soul, and the weapon's muzzle fell pointblank upon the devoted bosom of
Ralph; when the slight figure of the young woman passing between, again
arrested the design of the outlaw, who, with muttered curses, uncocking,
returned the weapon to his belt.

Whatever might have been the relationship between himself and these
females,