And now, Alice," he added, "you will see how much is still expected of
you. By the assistance of our experienced and invaluable friend, the
scout, we may find our way from this savage people, but you will have to
exert your utmost fortitude. Remember that you fly to the arms of your
venerable parent, and how much his happiness, as well as your own,
depends on those exertions."

"Can I do otherwise for a father who has done so much for me?"

"And for me too," continued the youth, gently pressing the hand he held
in both his own.

The look of innocence and surprise which he received in return convinced
Duncan of the necessity of being more explicit.

"This is neither the place nor the occasion to detain you with selfish
wishes," he added; "but what heart loaded like mine would not wish to
cast its burden? They say misery is the closest of all ties; our common
suffering in your behalf left but little to be explained between your
father and myself."

"And dearest Cora, Duncan; surely Cora was not forgotten?"

"Not forgotten! no; regretted, as woman was seldom mourned before. Your
venerable father knew no difference between his children; but I--Alice,
you will not be offended when I say, that to me her worth was in a
degree obscured--"

"Then you knew not the merit of my sister," said Alice, withdrawing her
hand; "of you she ever speaks as of one who is her nearest friend."

"I would gladly believe her such," returned Duncan, hastily; "I could
wish her to be even more; but with you, Alice, I have the permission of
your father to aspire to a still nearer and dearer tie."

Alice trembled violently, and there was an instant during which she bent
her face aside, yielding to the emotions common to her sex; but they
quickly passed away, leaving her mistress of her deportment, if not of
her affections.

"Heyward," she said, looking him full in the face with a touching
expression of innocence and dependency, "give me the sacred presence
and the holy sanction of that parent before you urge me further."

"Though more I should not, less I could not say," the youth was about to
answer, when he was interrupted by a light tap on his shoulder. Starting
to his feet, he turned, and, confronting the intruder, his looks fell on
the dark form and malignant visage of Magua. The deep guttural laugh of
the savage sounded, at such a moment, to Duncan like the hellish taunt
of a demon. Had he pursued the sudden and fierce impulse of the