furtive
glances over the shoulder gave him glimpses of some eight or ten
savages in pursuit, the renegade being among the foremost.

As Dernor was thus hurrying forward, he recalled that, less than half a
mile distant, the woods were broken and cut up by ravines and hills, as
though an earthquake had passed through that section; and, believing
that this would afford him a better opportunity of eluding his foes, he
turned in that direction and strained every nerve to reach it. As for
Edith herself, she seemed fired with supernatural strength, and sped
with a swiftness of which she never dreamed herself capable. Seeing
this, the Rifleman attempted to draw the charge out of his gun and
reload it. It was a work of great difficulty to do this while running,
but he succeeded in accomplishing it at last.

Constantly glancing behind him, in order to see his chance, he suddenly
whirled and fired with the rapidity of thought. Without pausing to
reload, he again placed his arm around Edith, and dashed forward almost
at the top of his speed.

Finding that the Indians, if gaining at all, were gaining very slowly
upon him, he half concluded that it was their intention to run his
companion down, well knowing that, although he was fully competent both
in speed and in bottom to contest with them, it could not be expected
that she could continue the rate at which she was going, for any length
of time.

"Ain't you tired?" he asked, hurriedly.

"Not much; I can run a great deal further," she replied, in the same
hurried manner.

"Keep your spirits up; we'll soon have different ground to travel
over."

Almost as he spoke, they came to the edge of a sort of ravine, too
broad for either to leap, and too precipitous to admit of an immediate
descent by either. Still retaining his hold upon her, Dernor ran
rapidly along the edge, until reaching a favorable spot, he lifted her
bodily from the ground, and bounded down to a rock over a dozen feet
below, and then leaped from this to the bottom of the ravine, Edith
sustaining no more of a shock than if she had been a feather.

Being now in the bottom of the ravine, where the ground was
comparatively even, the hunter placed the girl once more upon her feet,
and side by side they continued their flight from their merciless
pursuers. Their loud, exultant yells continued reverberating through
the woods, and glancing upward, Dernor saw the form of a huge Indian
suddenly come to view, on the ed