know, I'm sure. I'm 'fraid of everybody."

"See here, Zeke, was there any Injins chasing you, just now?"

"Yes--no. I've been clear of them a long time, I run so fast; but I'm
just as afeard, as I s'pose the Injins are all over the woods."

"Not so bad as that, though we'd be willing to get along if there was a
few less."

"Yes, that's so. Got any thing to eat?"

"No, but we'll soon have something."

"Can I go 'long with you?" asked the frightened fellow.

"If you wish to, provided you do what I want you to."

"Oh, I'll do any thing for you. Who's that with you?" he questioned,
peering around the hunter, who, although he had advanced a few steps,
still stood in front of Edith.

"A young friend, Miss Edith Sudbury."

"Glad to see you," said the young man, with an awkward bow.

"But see here," pursued the Rifleman, "how comes it you are in these
woods at all? You didn't come all the way from Pennsylvany alone?"

"Oh, no--oh, no. I came down the Ohio in a flat-boat."

"How is it that you are here, then?"

"The other day we stopped along the shore a while, and I went off in
the woods, and got lost. When I found my way back, the flat-boat had
gone, and I was left alone. I've been wandering around ever since, and
am nearly starved to death. Be you two hunting?"

"No, we are making our way to a settlement some miles off. Do you wish
to go with us?"

"Yes, anywhere to get out of these derned woods. Gracious! what a big
job it'll be to cut all these trees down," said young Hunt, looking
above and around him, as though absorbed with this new idea.

"A big job, certainly; but there'll be a big lot to do it when the time
comes. There don't appear to be any reason why we should wait, and so
we'll move ahead."

"Which way are you going?"

"Right ahead."

"Over the same ground that I come over?"

"I s'pose so."

"Oh, heavens! you are lost if you do. Don't do that."

"What's the matter? Any danger?"

"The woods are chuck full of Injins, I tell you. There must have
somebody passed that way and they looking for them, there are so many."

Dernor turned and spoke to Edith:

"No doubt he is right. It is but what I suspected. What shall I do?
Take a longer way home, and a safer one, or the short route?"

"Take the _safest_, whichever that may be."

"That is the longest. Come on, friend."

"I'm follerin'," replied that worthy, striding after him.

It was considerably past the hour of noon, and the brisk w