l find all of them. Let us go now. Some person
may find us here if we tarry."

Some person? Yes; that "person" was already near, and as Kate
Merriweather and her protector started to fly, Jim Girty, with a single
bound, reached the foot of the hillock, and stood before them.

The twain started back with a cry of terror; but Kate's retreat was
quickly checked by the renegade's hand.

"Not so fast, my beauty!" he cried with a hideous smile, a mixture of
sensuality and triumph. "I am convinced that I did not arrive a moment
too late. That man was playing me false!" and he nodded at the dead. "He
wasn't on the trail that leads to my cabin. I suspect, miss, that he got
struck with your beauty, and thought that he would outwit his employer
and make you his own wife."

Kate Merriweather did not reply. White faced and trembling, she stood
before the outlaw, whose eyes devoured her peerless beauty, and from
whose clutches she longed to escape.

"John Darknight proved to be a traitor, and your companion paid him for
his treachery, though I guess that she did not suspect that she was
serving me when she pulled the trigger. Perhaps you do not know me," and
there was a grim smile on Girty's face.

"I do not, though----"

"Though you may have heard of me, you were going to say. I fancy that my
name has reached your ears. There isn't a woman in the Northwest
Territory who has not heard of me. My name is Girty!"

The settler's daughter uttered a cry of mingled terror and disgust.

"Simon Girty, the renegade?"

"No! his brother James--the worse devil of the two!" said the outlaw
with a sardonic grin and a glance at the bewildered Little Moccasin.

"But you are not lost to every attribute of manhood, James Girty," said
the captive in a pleading tone that might have softened a heart of
flint. "There are hearts that bleed for me to-night. Do not deal with me
as they say you have dealt with others; but restore me to my dear ones,
and win the lasting gratitude of all who love me."

Following hard upon Kate Merriweather's last word came a laugh which
seemed the incarnation of fiendishness. The renegade's eyes seemed
filled with the heartless merriment.

"Restore you to the boat? Let you go, after I have gone to the pains of
getting John Darknight to guide you into my hands? Why, girl, you have
not studied the character of Jim Girty."

Kate's hope fled away, and she looked without a word upon the forest
beauty at her side.