By sight he could not tell whether they were all savages or not; but he heard the voice of a woman weeping as though in the depths of despair. But he was not destined to gaze long upon the scene! Hardly had he taken it in, when an arrow, whizzing close to his head, told him that he was discovered.
He gave one of the savages the contents of his rifle, and then turned and fled, muttering, as he did so:
“I’ll leave ye now; but the Death-Dealer ain’t done with ye yet. He’ll ye pay dearly for this night’s work.”
CHAPTER VII.
THE MAIDEN’S DOOM.
We will now go back for a few minutes, and note how it was that Ruth and her friends fell into the clutches of the savages.
It will be remembered that the scout told them to move slowly onward in the direction they were going; while he and Ned Tapley attended to the savages whom he had seen hanging in their rear.
These orders they had obeyed, keeping a sharp look-out about them for danger, until the moment when they had been startled by the shots fired by their friends behind them.
Ruth, in spite of herself, uttered a cry of terror at the sound, fearful that one of the reports might announce the death of her lover.
“Hush!” exclaimed her father, warningly. “Be calm, Ruth. You know that Dick warned us not to speak above our breath.”
They were passing now through a little thicket of evergreens, whose branches were so thick above their heads that the rays of moonlight could not penetrate to the earth.