husband's blow, that never left her
remembrance. While hurrying her swiftly through the wood he said
nothing at all, and at night, while she pretended to sleep, he watched
by the camp-fire. It was the light of this fire which had puzzled
Teddy so much. On the succeeding day the abductor reached the river
and embarked in his canoe. A half-hour later he leaned over the canoe
and washed the paint from his face and made himself known in his true
character, as Brazey Davis, her former lover. He had scarcely done so,
when an Indian canoe rounded a bend in the river, and, despite his
earnest protestations, the savages took the captive from him, and
carried her with them to their village, where she had been ever since.
Retained very closely, as all prisoners among Indians are, she had
heard nothing of Teddy's visit. She was treated with kindness, as the
destined wife of a young chief; but the suit for her consent never
was pressed by the chief, as it is in an Indian's code of honor never
to force a woman to a distasteful marriage. The young brave, with true
Indian pertinacity, could wait his time, confident that his kindness
and her long absence from home would secure her consent to the savage
alliance. She was denied nothing but her liberty, and her prayers to
be returned to her husband and child.

At this point in her narration, an exclamation from the Indian
arrested attention. All listened and heard but a short distance away:

"Begorrah, Teddy, it's yerself that's entitled to a wee bit of rist,
as yees have been on a mighty long tramp, and hasn't diskivered
anything but a country that is big enough to hide the Atlantic ocean
in, wid Ireland on its bosom as a jewel. The chances are small of yees
iver gitting another glimpse of heaven--that is, of Miss Cora's face.
The darlint; if she's gone to heaven, then Teddy McFadden don't care
how soon somebody else wears out his breeches--that is, on the
presumption that St. Peter will say, 'Teddy, me lad, ye can inter an'
make yerself at home, to be sure!'"

The husband and wife glanced at each other significantly as the fellow
rattled on.

"Wait a moment," said Harvey, rising to his feet, and carefully
making his way in the direction of the sound.

It was curious that the Irishman should have paused for his noonday
rest in such close proximity to our friends; but, he had learned from
a trader who had recently visited the Red River country, that there
_was_ a white woman, beyond