said the man with a grin.

"Then tell me what are you going to do with me?"

"You fin' dat out for yourself in a vaire leetle taime," was the
answer.

"Then where are you taking me?"

"Oh--Ah tell you dat, mees!" was the reply, given in a manner that
implied that the speaker was glad to find something in which he could
oblige her. "Ah tak' you to see lak' of zee Leetle Moose, ten, maybe
douze miles away."

"But why should you take me there?" asked Helen.

"Non! Ah not tell you dat! You fin' out all in zee good taime," was the
reply stolidly given.

Helen looked at the evil, cunning face, and knew that it was no use
pursuing inquiries in that direction. She waited a full minute, then
she began to ask another question, to her of even vaster moment:

"That man who was with me in the cabin, he----"

"Sacree!" cried the half-breed in a sudden burst of fury. "Dat man he
ees dead, Par Dieu! an' eef he was not, I roast heem alive!"

"Dead!" As the exclamation broke from her, the girl looked at the
half-breed with eyes in which gleamed a sudden fear. Then hope came to
her as she remembered the shots that she had heard. "But," she
protested, "he was firing on you as you left. It cannot be that he----"

"Non!" broke in the half-breed. "Dat man was with you he fire onlee
once, den he die. Dose shots dey come from zee wood, an' I not know who
fire dem. Eet was strange, I not know eef there be one man or more, so
I run aways wit' you."

He had more to say upon that particular matter, but Helen Yardely had
no ears for his words. Her hope was completely shattered by the
half-breed's explanation of those pursuing shots. From them, believing
they had come from her lover's rifle, she had argued with certainty
that he had survived the attack, that he was alive; and now----

Dead! As the word beat in her brain, she was overwhelmed by a feeling
of despair; and bowing her face suddenly in her hands gave way to her
grief. Great sobs shook her shoulders, and scalding tears welled in her
eyes. Her lover had indeed gone to his death after all, had given his
life for hers as at the very beginning of their acquaintance he had
risked it to the same end of saving her!

The callous half-breed was disturbed by the utter abandon of her grief.
In his brutal nature there was a stirring of unusual compunction, and
after watching her for a moment, he strove to console her, speaking in
a wheedling voice.

"No need to weep lik' zee rain in