"Pardon me," returned Leland, "if I at all doubted. This affliction weighs heavily upon me."
"I suspected this state of things," continued Leslie, "and it is the reason that I hurried down-stream. Yet the uncertainty of seeing you or any friend, deterred me from making haste to your place."
Here Leslie gave the circumstances of his encountering Zeb, and his subsequent misfortune, or, as he termed it, his fortune, of falling in the gorge.
"Then Kent is gone, is he?" asked George, when he had finished. "That is too bad, for we need his assistance greatly."
"In fact, I do not understand what we shall be able to do without him," added Leslie.
"Nor I; and here we are as helpless as if we were already in the hands of the Indians, so far as regards any assistance that we can give Rosalind," continued Leland.
"Oh, don't despair so soon. I trust that Kent will soon turn up, and we shall then have a good chance to recover her."
"Where do you suppose that Kent can be?"
"I can only guess."
"What reason have you then for thinking that we shall meet him?"