" queried
Kent.

"The Great Spirit will protect me. Farewell."

"Wait, Pequanon," said Rosalind, rising from her seat.

"Pequanon has only paid his debt to the pale-faced maiden."

The Indian was gone.

Rosalind sunk back upon her seat in tears.

"He's the first Injin that I ever got my clutches on that has got away
after it, and the first one that I ever felt like lettin' go. Somehow or
other my old gun didn't burn and wriggle when I sot my eyes on him, as
it is used to doin' in such cases; and if it wasn't fur that red hide of
hisn' I wouldn't believe he was one of them."

All this time the shouts and yells of the savages could be heard, and
now and then it seemed to the fugitives that they must have been
discovered. Kent pulled the boat to the opposite shore, and as he
expressed it, "hugged the bank mighty close." He had little fear of
being discovered, but the utmost caution was to be used, for, in their
rage, the savages would use every means in their power to recapture
them.

Kent knew that by keeping on, he would in time reach the banks of the
Ohio. Their enemies would probably suspect the true nature of their
escape and take to the river in pursuit; and, as the Indians, in case of
discovery, could easily overtake and recapture them, they must
necessarily be saved by fortune and stratagem. Though scarce a ripple
was heard, the shadowy form of the boat shot swiftly under the hanging
trees and round the projecting points of the bank, like some serpent
gliding noiselessly over the surface.

Soon the edge of the great moon slowly rose above the dark line of the
forest, and its long rays streamed over wood and river; when it had
finally risen high up in the heavens, the stream shone as brightly as at
noonday. Its winding course could be discerned ahead until it was lost
in the forest, and for miles behind, its banks were as clearly defined
as it could have been under the sun's rays.

Now that the river and its objects were so plainly depicted, Kent kept
closer yet under the shadows of the friendly bank. Now and then he
hurried through some opening in the trees of the shore, where, for a
minute, he was exposed to any gaze that might chance to be given; then,
when the water was shallow, he struck the muddy bottom, and patiently
worked himself on again. Being engaged in rowing, his face was turned
toward the stern, and thus had a full sweep of the river which he had
passed over, the only point from which he