He merely glanced up as he heard him coming, and then, without speaking or making any salutation, continued his work. Harry advanced resolutely forward, and, determined to know the worst at once, said:
“Good-day, Uncle Ruff. Has Little Rifle returned?”
The trapper, seemingly suspecting that something was wrong, suddenly started and looked up with a sharp, inquiring glance. Next moment came his answer, too clear and direct for any mistake:
“I haven’t sot eyes on him sense you and him went away yesterday.”
“Then Heaven only knows what has become of her!” exclaimed Harry, in the very wretchedness of despair, as he sat down upon a log and covered his face with his hands. “She went away in the night, and I can not tell why it was she left.”
The sharp-eared trapper noticed the peculiar way in which the lad referred to Little Rifle, and, ceasing his work and walking to where he was seated, he demanded:
“What do you mean, younker, by calling Little Rifle her? What are yer thinking ’bout?”
It had not been the intention of Harry Northend to reveal the revelations of last night in this fashion; indeed he had not settled in his mind that he was going to reveal it at all; but now, as he had given the all-important hint in his ill-guarded speech, there was nothing left for him to do except to make a clean breast of it.
And this was done. He told the story from beginning to end, even to the declaration of love that he had made to Little Rifle, and her partial confession of the same; he referred particularly to her tender regard for Uncle Ruff, and her determination to consult him before leaving the wilderness for a civilized life, which declaration caused him to believe that she had absented herself for that purpose. He related, too, their conversation and plans regarding the future, especially the project he had framed of her being taken in charge by his father and educated.
Harry saw from the first that Robsart was to be the main character in rescuing Little Rifle; that scarcely any thing could be done without his assistance, and so he told the whole truth, keeping back nothing that came into his mind.