[CHAPTER XVI.]
WHAT FATE HAS ORDAINED.
Adele had for ancestors, on her father's side of the house, valiant Frenchmen, and she inherited some of their courage.
Red Goliath had paid no attention to her after Mason so suddenly appeared upon the scene of action, and in this disregard he proved his complete ignorance of the young girl's bravery.
When she saw the one she loved so well in the power of this rough assassin, all fear fled for the time being from her heart, and she was brave.
While she alone had been threatened Adele could not help being terror-stricken, but now the case was quite altered.
The revolver that had been knocked from Mason's hand (General Custer's revolver) lay near the young girl. Her eyes had followed its course through the air mechanically, and as she realized what power lay in the little weapon, her eyes flashed. She sprang forward and picked it up.
Just at this instant a man clad in a buckskin, and whose face bore the impress of nature's nobleman, stepped into view. He held up a hand toward Adele, as if telling her to remain a passive spectator, and she, willing to trust her cause in such hands, suffered the revolver that had been raised with so determined a purpose to fall to her side.
One bound, like that of a panther, served to bring Bolly Wherrit in a position where he could enter into the game. As his iron hand came down upon the brawny arm of the giant Hercules, the latter looked up with a startled look. It was his last word upon earth, the curse he uttered; for the ranger buried his knife in that broad chest, with the force of an avenger, and threw the dying monster upon the rocky floor. Mason sprang up and took Adele away to the other end of the cavern, in order that she might not witness what a terrible thing death was.