Virginia looked, pleadingly, in the face of Kate, and wondered to see her brown cheek pale and her great eyes fill with tears.
“Oh, you do not know what you ask!” cried Kate, in agony, “and I can not tell you.”
Virginia heard the strange words in amazement.
“Can you not be my sister?”
“No, no, it is impossible,” Kate murmured, sadly.
“Impossible, why?”
“Because—”
The wild war-whoop of the Shawnees, pealing forth on the still morning air, and ringing in the ears of the three like a signal of doom, cut short Kate’s words.
Then the door yielded to a heavy blow, and a score of dark forms rushed into the room.