“You have told me she is dead—­murdered by the foul assassins,” said Roland; “and if it be so, it avails not to deny it.  If it be so, Nathan,” he continued, with a look of desperation, “I call Heaven and earth to witness, that I will pursue the race of the slayers with thrice the fury of their own malice,—­never to pause, never to rest, never to be satisfied with vengeance, while an Indian lives with blood to be shed, and I with strength to shed it.”

“Thee speaks like a man!” said Nathan, grasping the soldier’s hand, and fairly crushing it in his gripe,—­“that is to say,” he continued, suddenly letting go his hold, and seeming somewhat abashed at the fervour of his sympathy, “like a man, according to thee own sense of matters and things.  But do thee be content; thee poor maid is alive, and like to be so; and that thee may be assured of it, I will soon tell thee the thing that is on my mind.  Friend, do thee answer me a question,—­Has thee any enemy among the Injuns?—­that is to say, any reprobate white man like this Abel Doe,—­who would do thee a wrong?”

The soldier started with surprise, and replied in the negative.

“Has thee no foe, then, at home, whom thee has theeself wronged to that point that he would willingly league with murdering Injuns to take thee life?”

“I have my enemies, doubtless, like all other men,” said Roland, “but none so basely, so improbably malignant.”

“Verily, then, thee makes me in a perplexity as before,” said Nathan; “for as truly as thee stands before me, so truly did I see, that night when I left thee at the ruins, and crawled through the Injun lines, a white man that sat at a fire with Abel Doe, the father of the maid Telie, apart from the rest, and counselled with him how best to sack the cabin, without killing the two women.  Truly, friend, it was a marvel to myself, there being so many of the murdering villains, that they did us so little mischief:  but, truly, it was because of the women.  And, truly, there was foul knavery between these two men; for I heard high words and chaffering between them, as concerning a price or reward which Abel Doe claimed of the other for the help he was rendering him, in snapping thee up, with thee kinswoman.  Truly, thee must not think I was mistaken; for seeing the man’s red shawl round his head gleaming in the fire, and not knowing there was any one nigh him (for Abel Doe lay flat upon the earth), a wicked thought came into my head; ‘for, truly,’ said I, ’this man is the chief, and, being alone, a man might strike him with a knife from behind the tree he rests against, and being killed, his people will fly in fear, without any more blood-shed;’ but creeping nearer, I saw that he was but a white man in disguise; and so, having listened awhile, to hear what I could, and hearing what I have told thee, I crept away on my journey.”

The effect of this unexpected revelation upon the young Virginian was as if an adder had suddenly fastened upon his bosom.  It woke a suspicion, involving indeed an improbability such as his better reason revolted at, but full of pain and terror.  But wild and incredible as it seemed, it received a kind of confirmation from what Nathan added.