ky dog; don't you?"

The door closed quite as quickly again, and Lester was alone with his
bitter thoughts.

"What have I done that a just God should torture me thus?" he cried out
in an agony so intense that great beads of cold perspiration gathered on
his forehead and rolled unheeded down his white cheeks. "If he tortured
me to the gates of death I could endure it, but the very thought that my
innocent darling, my beautiful, tender little Faynie, is in that
dastardly villain's power, fairly goads me to madness. Oh, Heaven! if I
but had the strength of Samson for but a single hour, to burst these
cruel bonds asunder and fly to my dear one's side!"

But, struggle as he would, the thongs which bound him, rendering him
powerless to aid the girl he loved, would not give way.

Thus a fortnight passed, and Halloran was beside himself with wonder to
find each morning that Lester was still alive and that he had not gone
mad.

But Lester Armstrong's guardian angel had not quite forgotten him;
Heaven had not intended that he should die by thirst and starvation in
that isolated cabin, and served him in a strange, unlooked-for way.

He soon discovered that a family of squirrels had made a home beneath a
piece of flooring within easy reach of where he lay, and upon forcing up
the piece of rotten plank he found to his intense joy an almost endless
supply of nuts, and close beside their burrow a running stream of clear,
cool, fresh, bubbling spring water.

In an instant he had slaked his thirst and laved his burning brow.

From that hour he felt sure that Heaven intended him to escape from his
foes. He took good care, however, to conceal his wonderful discovery
from Halloran's keen, sharp eyes when he looked in each day.

CHAPTER XXVI.

A FIENDISH ACT.

"Like some lone bird
Without a mate,
My lonely heart is desolate;
I look around
And cannot trace, a friendly
smile, a welcome face.
Even in crowds
I'm still alone, because I
cannot love but one."

Thus a fortnight passed, and under the rigid diet of the strengthening,
nutritious nuts and clear spring water Lester rapidly gained strength.

He only waited a fitting opportunity to make a dash for liberty.

Halloran was well armed; he realized that fact, and that he would shoot
him down like a dog ere he would suffer him to escape the fate that had
been laid out for him.

Therefore his only hope was to get away by stra