Sorrowfully she mourned for his death, as the memory of his handsome face and frank, honest bearing came back to her. He was the first and only man that she had ever loved.
“Oh, my fate seems bitter, indeed!” she murmured. “Why did Providence ever bring us together and implant the germs of love in our hearts, if it was fated that we should be torn apart thus rudely? I thought that we should be so happy together. I looked forward to a bright and blissful future. But now the past is full of dreadful memories, and the future does not show one single ray of sunlight to brighten up the darkness of my life.”
If Virginia’s thoughts were so dark and gloomy now, with the prospect of being restored to her home and friends before her, what would they have been had she known the truth? Had she guessed that she was in the power of a man more terrible and merciless in his nature than any red savage that roamed the wild woods?
It is, perhaps, a mercy sometimes that we can not guess the future.
Virginia had been in the lonely cabin some five hours, wrapped in these gloomy thoughts. Then the man who had called himself Benton stood again upon the edge of the clearing.
“So far, so good,” he muttered to himself, in joy, a smile lighting up his dark face as he spoke. “Now to take the bird from this cage and place it in one more secure; and then, that task done, to visit my foe, let him know the vengeance that has already fallen upon his head, and the more terrible vengeance that is still to come. It has taken years to ripen it, but the fruit will be bitter indeed.”
Then he crossed the little clearing and entered the cabin.
Virginia started up with joy as she saw who it was.
To her the dark-browed stranger was as a guardian angel—one destined to protect and save her from the terrible danger that menaced her.
“You have seen my father?” she cried, anxiously.