"Too dark—can't see—wait till sun."
"Oh, begorrah! I didn't understand ye. The Injin 'l' git a good start on us, won't he though?"
"Ain't Injin—white man!"
"A white man, does ye say, that run off wid Miss Cora?"
Two of the Indians replied in the affirmative.
Teddy manifested the most unbounded amazement, and for a while, could say nothing. Then he leaped into the air, struck the sides of his shoes with his fingers, and broke forth:
"It was that owld hunter, may purgatory take him! Him and that owld Mahogany, what made me drunk—blast his sowl—have been hid around in the woods, waiting for a chance to do harm, and one is so much worse than t'other yees can't tell both from which. Och! if I but had him under the sight of me gun."
The spot upon which the Indians and Teddy were standing was but a short distance from the village, and yet, instead of returning to it, they started a small fire and lay down for the night. They were upon the trail, and nothing was to turn them aside from it until their work was completed, or it was utterly lost to them.
Teddy was more loth than they to turn his face backward, but, under the circumstances, he could not forget the sad, waiting husband at home. So he returned to the cabin, to make him acquainted with the result of their labors thus far.
"If the Indian only avoids the river, he may be overtaken, but if he takes to that, I am fearful he can never be found."