lf-suppressed scream followed this declaration, succeeded by some
words that appeared to be uttered in a tone of menace or reproach. But
the words were in the Chicasaw tongue, and I could not comprehend their
import.

Almost at the same instant, I saw the young hunter hurriedly draw back
his horse--as if to get out of the way. I fancied that the crisis had
arrived, when my presence might be required. Under this belief, I
touched my steed with the spur, and trotted out into the open ground.
To my astonishment, I perceived that the hunter was alone. Su-wa-nee
had disappeared from the glade!

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

MAKING A CLEAN BREAST OF IT.

"Where is she?--gone?" I mechanically asked, in a tone that must have
betrayed my surprise.

"Yes--gone! gone! an' wi' a Mormon!"

"A Mormon?"

"Ay, stranger, a Mormon--a man wi' twenty wives! God forgi' her! I'd
rather heerd o' her death!"

"Was there a man with her? I saw no one."

"O stranger, excuse my talk--you're thinkin' o' that ere Injun girl.
'Taint her I'm speakin' about."

"Who then?"

The young hunter hesitated: he was not aware that I was already in
possession of his secret; but he knew that I had been witness of his
emotions, and to declare the name would be to reveal the most sacred
thought of his heart. Only for a moment did he appear to reflect; and
then, as if relieved from his embarrassment, by some sudden
determination, he replied:

"Stranger! I don't see why I shedn't tell ye all about this bisness. I
don know the reezun, but you've made me feel a kind o' confidence in
you. I know it's a silly sort o' thing to fall in love wi' a handsum
girl; but if ye'd only seen _her_!"

"I have no doubt, from what you say, she was a beautiful creature,"--
this was scarcely my thought at the moment--"and as for falling in love
with a pretty girl, none of us are exempt from that little weakness.
The proud Roman conqueror yielded to the seductions of the brown-skinned
Egyptian queen; and even Hercules himself was conquered by a woman's
charms. There is no particular silliness in that. It is but the common
destiny of man."

"Well, stranger, it's been myen; an' I've hed reezun to be sorry for it.
But it's no use tryin' to shet up the stable arter the hoss's been
stole out o't. She are gone now; an' that's the end o' it. I reckon
I'll niver set eyes on her agin."

The sigh that accompanied this last observation, with the melancholy
tone in which