veered, and shot past
them like a thunderbolt; clearing rocks, hollows, bushes, with
incredible bounds; nearing the ravine, but halting not; dashing into the
thickets there, missing suddenly the ground beneath his feet, striking
only the air and yielding boughs with frantic hoofs; then plunging down
with a dull, reverberant crash,--horse and unknown rider rolling
together over rocks and spiked limbs to the bottom of the ravine.

Then all was still again: it had passed like a vision of fear.

XXX.

_REFUGE._

For a moment the little group stood dumb and motionless on the ledge, in
the flare of the vast flame-curtains. They looked at each other. Penn
was the first to speak.

"Which of us goes down into the ravine?"

"Wha' fur?" said Cudjo.

"To find him!" And Penn gazed anxiously towards the thickets into which
the horse and horseman had gone down.

"Dat no good! Deader 'n de debil, shore!"

"O, may be he is not!" exclaimed Virginia, full of compassion for the
unfortunate unknown. "Do go and see, Cudjo!"

"Fire'll be dar in less'n no time. Him nuffin to Cudjo. We's best be
gwine." And the negro started off, doggedly, towards the cave.

Then Penn took the resolution which he would have taken at once but for
Virginia. "Stay with her, Daniel! I will go!"

Virginia turned pale; she had not thought of that. But immediately she
controlled her fears: she would not be selfish: if he was brave and
generous enough to descend into the ravine for one he did not know, she
would be equally brave and generous, and let him go. She clasped her
hands together so that they should not hold him back, and forced her
lips to say,--

"I will wait for you here."

"No, I be durned if ye shall! Hapgood, you stick to her: take this yer
gun, and I'll slip down inter the holler, and see whuther the cuss's
alive or dead, any how."

"O, Mr. Pepperill, if you will!" said Virginia, overjoyed.

Penn remonstrated,--rather feebly, it must be confessed, for the
determination to part from her had cost him a struggle, and the
privilege of keeping by her side till all danger was past, seemed too
sweet to refuse.

"I'll take her to her father, and hurry back, and meet you."

"All right!" came the response from Dan, already far down the rocks.

"The cave is close by," said Penn. "There is Cudjo, waiting for us!"

Coming up with the black, and once more following his lead, they
descended along the shelf of rocks, between the thicke