u took me. Vill you leave her to die?
And Mishter Hapgoot is just a little vay up the mountain, and there is
nopody to let him know!"

A look of ghastly intelligence came into Dan's face as he stopped to
listen to this explanation. He seemed half inclined to set the boy's
limbs free, and risk the consequences. But just then Ropes shouted at
him,--

"What ye at thar, Pepperill? Why don't ye bring along that ar brush?"

So the brief conference ended, and the cords remained uncut. And a
great, dangerous fire was kindling in the woods. And now Carl's only
hope for Virginia was, that she would take advantage of its light to
make good her retreat from the mountain.

XXVIII.

_BEAUTY AND THE BEAST._

Unfortunately the poor girl had no suspicion of the mischance that had
overtaken her guide. She heard voices, and believed that he had fallen
in with some friends. Thus she waited, expecting momently that he would
return to her. She saw a single gleam of light that vanished in the
darkness. Then the voices grew fainter and fainter, and at length died
in the distance. And she was once more utterly alone.

Fearful doubt and uncertainty agitated her. In a moment of despair,
yielding to the terrors of her situation, she wrung her hands and called
on Carl imploringly not to abandon her, but to come back--"O, dear, dear
Carl, come back!"

Suddenly she checked herself. Why was she sitting there, wasting the
time in tears and reproaches?

"Poor Carl never meant to desert me in this way, I know. If I ever see
him again, he will make me sorry that I have blamed him. No doubt he has
done his best. But, whatever has become of him, I am sure he cannot find
his way back to me now. I'll follow him; perhaps I may find him, or
Penn, or some of their friends."

She arose accordingly, and groped her way in the direction in which she
had seen the light and heard the voices. And soon another and very
different light gladdened her eyes--a faint glow, far off, as of a fire
kindled among the forest trees. It was the camp of the patriots, she
thought.

She came to the brook, which, invisible, mysterious, murmuring, rolled
along in the midnight blackness, and seemed too formidable for her to
ford. She felt the cold rush of the hurrying water, the slippery slime
of the mossy and treacherous stones, and withdrew her appalled hands. To
find a shallow place to cross, she followed up the bank; and as the
light was still before her, higher