friend," said Roland, a little offended, and yet more
embarrassed, by the interrogatory, "none can tell better than yourself
how much, or how little occasion I may have for a guide. Your question,
therefore, I leave you to answer yourself. If you think your duty calls
you to abandon a woman in the wild woods to such guidance as one wholly
unacquainted with them can give, you can depart as soon as you think fit;
for I cannot--"

The guide gave him no time to finish the sentence. "You're right,
strannger," he cried; "thar is your road, as plain as the way up a
hickory, b'aring to a camp of old friends and acquaintances,--and hy'ar
is mine, running right slap among fighting Injuns!"

And with that he turned his horse's head, and flourishing his right hand,
armed with the ever constant rifle, above his own, and uttering a whoop
expressive of the wild pleasure he felt at being released from his
ignoble duty, he dashed across the pool, and galloped in a moment out of
sight, leaving Roland and his party confounded at the desertion.

"An outlandish niggur'!" muttered old Emperor, on whom this expression of
the guide had produced no very favourable effect; "guess the gemman white
man is a niggur himself, and a rogue, and a potater, or whatsomever you
call 'em! Leab a lady and a gemman lost in the woods, and neither take
'em on nor take 'em back!--lor-a-massy!"

To this half-soliloquised expression of indignation the soldier felt
inclined to add a few bitter invectives of his own; but Edith treating
the matter lightly, and affecting to be better pleased at the rude man's
absence than she had been with his company, he abated his own wrath, and
acknowledged that the desertion afforded the best proof of the safety of
the road; since he could not believe that the fellow, with all his
roughness and inhumanity, would have been so base as to leave them while
really surrounded by difficulties. He remembered enough of Bruce's
description of the road, which he had taken care should be minute and
exact, to feel persuaded that the principal obstructions were now over,
and that, as the guide had said, there was no possibility of wandering
from the path. They had already travelled nearly half the distance to the
river, and to accomplish the remainder, they had yet four hours of
day-light. He saw no reason why they should not proceed alone, trusting
to their good fate for a fortunate issue to their enterprise. To return
to the fort would be