"I'll let myself overboard," said the veteran, "swim back, and do what I can to help Simon."
"You can give him no help," gently interposed the missionary; "in truth, Kenton will do better without than with you."
"I'm of that way of thinking myself," said Boone, "though if Simon was expecting me it would be different."
"But he won't expect you; he saw what none else of us saw—the capture of the little one, and will do all that mortal man can do."
"I don't remember whether I told him the camp of The Panther and his party is just on t'other side of Rattlesnake Gulch or not."
"Probably you did tell him, but it matters little if you did not; he will speedily learn the truth. They are likely to take the child there, and she will not arrive in camp much sooner than Kenton will reach the vicinity."
The parents were quick to notice that Boone and the missionary spoke as if there were little, if any, doubt in their minds that this course would be followed.
"Suppose," said Mr. Ashbridge, in a tremulous voice, "she is not spared to be taken into camp?"
"We are all in the hands of our Heavenly Father," reverently replied the good man, "He doeth all things well, and we must accept His will with resignation. If the little one has not been spared, then it is already too late for us to give her aid; if she has escaped death, then I believe she is in the camp of the Shawanoes."
"And we can steal up and charge upon them," said the brother, to whom the inaction was becoming intolerable.