out waiting to inquire the cause of what was being done,
each man, as he arrived, fell to work on the blazing edifice, and, urged
on by Henry's voice and example, toiled and moiled in the midst of fire
and smoke until the pastor's house was literally pulled to pieces.

Fortunately for little Alice, she had been carried out of the house long
before by Keona, who, being subtle as well as revengeful, knew well how
to strike at the tenderest part of the white man's heart.

While her friends were thus frantically endeavoring to deliver her from
the burning house in which they supposed her to be, Alice was being
hurried through the woods by a steep mountain path in the direction of
the native village. Happily for the feelings of her father, the fact was
made known, soon after the house had been pulled down, by the arrival of
a small party of native settlers bearing one of the child's shoes. They
had found it, they said, sticking in the mud, about a mile off, and had
tracked the little footsteps a long way into the mountains by the side
of the prints made by the naked feet of a savage. At length they had
lost the tracks amid the hard lava rocks, and had given up the chase.

"We must follow them up instantly," said Mr. Mason, who had by this time
recovered: "no time is to be lost."

"Aye, time is precious; who will go?" cried Henry, who, begrimed with
fire and smoke, and panting vehemently from recent exertion, had just at
that moment come towards the group.

"Take me! oh take me, Henry!" cried Corrie, in a beseeching tone, as he
sprang promptly to his friend's side.

At any other time, Henry would have smiled at the enthusiastic offer of
such a small arm to fight the savages; but fierce anger was in his
breast at that moment. He turned from the poor boy and looked round with
a frown, as he observed that, although the natives crowded round him at
once, neither Gascoyne, nor Thorwald, nor Captain Montague showed any
symptom of an intention to accompany him.

"Nay, be not angry, lad," said Gascoyne, observing the frown; "your
blood is young and hot, as it should be; but it behooves us to have a
council of war before we set out on this expedition, which, believe me,
will be no trifling one, if I know anything of savage ways and doings."

"Mr. Gascoyne is right," said Montague, turning to the missionary, who
stood regarding the party with anxious looks, quite unable to offer
advice on such an occasion, and clasping the littl