"Reason has returned, or is now striving to regain its place," he thought. "She is, in fact, in her right mind already, but it is no wonder that her recollections still confuse her. Strange! strange! who would have thought the Frontier Angel could have been her?"
Soon the patient slept—a troubled, dreamy sleep. She talked incessantly—now in soft, beseeching tones to Peterson and Holmes (the commander), then fairly shrieking the name of McGable, and once or twice she spoke the name of Marian Abbott!
The wind howled around the old block-house, moaning through the forest and ridging the Ohio till the dismal beat of its waves could be heard, when an occasional lull occurred. The rain rattled through the village like the incessant volleys of shot, and the pale flickering light shining through the loop-holes of the fort was the only visible sign of life.
The commander paced the floor a while and then sat down and gazed into the face of the sufferer. Her eyes were closed and her face was of unearthly whiteness. Now and then the thin lips moved and the broken words came forth. Once the brow compressed as if a twinge of pain ran through her, and then she started and gasped:
"Oh, don't! don't! McGable, you will kill her! Let her alone!"
"What can she mean?" wondered Holmes. "Yes—it is Marian—there! she spoke her name then."
All at once, the patient come to the sitting position, and opening her eyes to their fullest extent, stared apparently through the very walls of the block-house out into the wilderness. Then, raising her hand, she repeated these words:
"I see them!—they are hastening to the cave!—they will kill her!—she cannot get away!—she will die."
"You are excited—lie down again!" pleaded the commander. But she heeded him not. Her dark eyes glowed with tenfold light, and she added:
"I see them! they are Indians going to kill Marian Abbot! There are two Shawnee warriors, and they are now picking their way through the forest. She will die! she will die, if she is not saved at once!"