The rigid lines of the face, distorted by the agony of pain, grew soft. The moans of anguish were stilled. The simple treatment of the girl was relieving the torture felt by the stranger.
Eagerly the girl watched the face, and smiled when she saw the muscles relax and the painful breathing become low and regular.
“He will not die!” she cried, in joy, but barely speaking above a whisper for fear of disturbing her patient.
“He will live and owe that life to me. Oh! what joy in the thought!” Then a few moments she remained silent, watching the pale face before her with many a long, loving look.
Few of the settlers at Point Pleasant who had seen Kanawha Kate roaming the forest, rifle in hand—as good a woodman as any one among them—would have guessed that, within the heart of the forest-queen was a world of tenderness and love.
They had seen her bring down the brown deer with a single shot, wing an eagle in his airy circle in the sky and bring the kingly bird tumbling to earth; had seen her when the Ohio, lashed into white, crested waves by the mad winds, bid defiance to the boldest boatman to dare to cross it, launch her dug-out and fearlessly commit herself to the mercy of the dashing waters.
How could they guess that with the dauntless courage of a lion, she also possessed the tender and loving heart of a woman? But so it was.
“It was Heaven that sent me to his aid,” she murmured, gazing fondly on the white face. “How beautiful he is; how unlike the rough fellows in yonder settlement,” and the girl’s lip curled contemptuously as she spoke.
“He is a king to them. Oh! what would I not give to win his love; but that thought is folly. I am despised by all; but no, there is one who speaks fairly to and thinks kindly of me—Virginia Treveling. She has a noble heart. She is the only one in yonder settlement who has not treated me with scorn and yet fate has decreed that we shall stand in each other’s way.” Mournful was the voice of the girl as the words came from her lips; sorrowful was the look upon her face.
“It is a hopeless passion that I am nourishing in my heart. I must not love him, for I can never hope to win a return of that love.”