-to anything rather than the
true cause. Nor could she help hoping that there might be still some
mistake, and that Hansford would be found alive and well, thus
establishing her own innocence, and ending the pursuit.

Arrived nearly at the wigwam, she mentioned the fact to Bernard, who in
a low voice commanded a halt, and dismounting with his men, he directed
Mamalis to guide them the remaining distance on foot. Leaving Thompson
in charge of the horses, until he might be called to their assistance,
Bernard and Holliday silently followed the unsuspecting Indian girl
along the narrow path. A short distance ahead, they could discern the
faint smoke, as it curled through the opening at the top of the wigwam
and floated towards the sky. This indication rendered it probable that
the object of their search was still watching, and thus warned them to
greater caution in their approach. Bernard's heart beat thick and loud,
and his cheek blanched with excitement, as he thus drew near the lurking
place of his enemy. He shook Holliday by the arm with impatient anger,
as the heavy-footed soldier jarred the silence by the crackling of
fallen leaves and branches. And now they are almost there, and Mamalis,
whose excitement was also intense, still in advance, saw through a
crevice in the door the kneeling form of the noble insurgent, as he
bowed himself by that lonely fire, and committed his weary soul to God.

"He is here! he lives!" she shouted. "I knew that he was safe!" and the
startled forest rang with the echoes of her voice.

"The murder is out," cried Bernard, as followed by Holliday, he rushed
forward to the door, which had been thrown open by their guide; but ere
he gained his entrance, the sharp report of a pistol was heard, and the
beautiful, the trusting Mamalis fell prostrate on the floor, a bleeding
martyr to her constancy and faith. Hansford, roused by the sudden sound
of her voice, had seized the pistol which, sleeping and waking, was by
his side, and hearing the voice of Bernard, he had fired. Had the ball
taken effect upon either of the men, he might yet have been saved, for
in an encounter with a single man he would have proved a formidable
adversary. But inscrutable are His ways, whose thoughts are not as our
thoughts, and all that the puzzled soul can do, is humbly to rely on the
hope that

"God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain."

And she, the last of her dispersed and ruined lineage,