‘Peritana,’ said the girl, in a voice which was choked with emotion, ‘is not well; she seeks the woods, to drive away the bad spirit.’

During this brief colloquy the young brave had stepped within the deep shadow of the tent, his rifle ready cocked.  As the girl ceased speaking, the head of an old warrior was protruded from the wigwam door.

‘Thy sisters have been asleep since the dance was over,’ said the aged Indian; ‘why is Peritana awake?’

The girl saw her companion level his rifle—­her agitation was intense.  Her feelings were deeply moved on both sides.

‘Father,’ said she, and the rifle was raised instantly, ’Peritana goes to the woods; she will not tarry long.  Her head is hot; she cannot sleep now.’

Satisfied with this explanation, the old Sioux retired once more within the tent, leaving the young warrior and his sad companion to reach the forest unmolested.  Peritana was deeply moved at parting from her parents, and, but that she knew that death would be her portion on the discovery of her aiding the escape of Ah-kre-nay, would gladly have returned to where, as her father had told her, her sisters slept soundly.  The die, however, was cast, and she was now in the woods, the companion of the runaway.

We must pass over a year of time, and take up our narrative at some distance from the spot above described.  It was a deep dell on the banks of the upper waters of one of those streams that serve to swell the Ontario.  Perhaps a lovelier spot was never discovered by man.  At a place where the river made a bend, there rose from its bank, at some distance from the water, a steep but not perpendicular cliff, thickly grown with bushes, and spotted with flowers, while tall trees crowned the crest of the eminence.  Of a horseshoe form, the two ends approached the edge of the stream, leaving, however, to the east a narrow ledge, by which the vale could be approached.  The space between the water and the bottom of the cliff was occupied by a sward of velvety smoothness, while beneath the rock was a dark and gloomy natural cavern.  The most prominent feature of the scene, however, was of human formation.  It was an Indian hut, which doubtless rose in this spot for the purpose of concealment.  No better place could have been found within many miles, as the portion of the river which flowed in sight, from its proximity to a fall, was navigable only to the smallest canoe, and was therefore never made use of by travelling-parties.  The wigwam was of the usual dome-like shape, roofed with skins tastefully and elegantly adjusted, while a mass of creeping and flowering shrubs that entwined themselves around it, showed it to be no erection of a day.  It was a model of cleanliness and neatness, while a fireplace at some distance out-of-doors, within the cavern, showed that, at least during the summer months, the inconvenience of smoke was dispensed with within its walls.  The whole was wrapped in deep silence, looking as if utterly abandoned by every trace of humanity.