there was an evident reluctance on the part of Rivers to
exhibit his ferocious hatred of the youth before those to whom he had
just rendered a great and unquestioned service; and, though untroubled
by any feeling of gratitude on their behalf, or on his own, he was yet
unwilling, believing, as he did, that his victim was now perfectly
secure, that they should undergo any further shock, at a moment too of
such severe suffering and trial as must follow in the case of the
younger, from those fatal pangs which were destroying the other.

Ralph now prepared to depart; and taking leave of the young woman, who
alone seemed conscious of his services, and warmly acknowledged them, he
proceeded to the door. Rivers, who had watched his motions attentively,
and heard the directions given him by the girl for his progress, at the
same moment left the window, and placed himself under the shelter of a
huge tree, at a little distance on the path which his enemy was directed
to pursue. Here he waited like the tiger, ready to take the fatal leap,
and plunge his fangs into the bosom of his victim. Nor did he wait long.

Ralph was soon upon his steed, and on the road; but the Providence that
watches over and protects the innocent was with him, and it happened,
most fortunately, that just before he reached the point at which his
enemy stood in watch, the badness of the road had compelled those who
travelled it to diverge aside for a few paces into a little by-path,
which, at a little distance beyond, and when the bad places had been
rounded, brought the traveller again into the proper path. Into this
by-path, the horse of Colleton took his way; the rider neither saw the
embarrassments of the common path, nor that his steed had turned aside
from them. It was simply providential that the instincts of the horse
were more heedful than the eyes of the horseman.

It was just a few paces ahead, and on the edge of a boggy hollow that
Guy Rivers had planted himself in waiting. The tread of the young
traveller's steed, diverging from the route which he watched, taught the
outlaw the change which it was required that he should also make in his
position.

"Curse him!" he muttered. "Shall there be always something in the way of
my revenge?"

Such was his temper, that everything which baffled him in his object
heightened his ferocity to a sort of madness. But this did not prevent
his prompt exertion to retrieve the lost ground. The "turn-out" did not