her, she sprang lightly up the ledges, and from
rock to rock.

Cudjo, carrying Dan's gun, ran on before, leading the way through
hollows and among bushes, by a route known only to himself. So they
reached a piece of woods, by the thin skirts of which he hoped to head
off the fire. Too late--it was there before them. It ran swiftly among
the fallen leaves and twigs, and spread far into the woods.

The negro turned back. There was a wild grimace in his face, and a
glitter in his eyes, as he threw up his hand, by way of signal that
their flight in that direction was cut off.

"Cudjo! what is to be done!" And Penn drew Virginia towards him with a
look that showed his fears were all for her.

"We can't git off down the mountain, nuther!" said Dan. "It's gittin'
into the woods down thar. It'll be all around us in no time!"

"You let Cudjo do what him pleases?" said the black.

"I can trust you! Can you, Virginia?"

"He should know what is best. Yes, I will trust him."

"Take dat 'ar!" Pepperill received his gun. "Now you look out fur
youselves. Me tote de gal."

And catching up Virginia, before Penn could stop him, or question him,
he rushed with her into the fire.

Penn ran after him, perceiving at once the meaning of this bold act. The
woods were not yet fairly kindled; only now and then the loose bark of a
dry trunk was beginning to blaze. Cudjo leaped over the line of flame
that was running along the ground, and bore Virginia high above it to
the other side. Penn followed, and Dan came close behind. They then had
before them a tract of blackened ground which the flames had swept,
leaving here and there a dead limb or mat of leaves still burning.

These little fires were easily avoided. But they soon came to another
line of flame raging on the upper side of the burnt tract. They were
almost out of the woods: only that red, crackling hedge fenced them in;
but that they could not pass: the underbrush all along the forest edge
was burning. And there they were, brought to a halt, half-stifled with
smoke, in the midst of woods kindling and blazing all around them.

"May as well pull up hyar, and take a bref," remarked Cudjo, grimly,
placing Virginia on a log too dank with decay and moss to catch fire
easily. "Den we's try 'em agin."

A horrible suspicion crossed Penn's mind; the fanatical fire-worshipper
had brought them there to destroy them--to sacrifice them to his god!

"Virginia!"--eagerly laying hold of he