Scarcely were the words uttered, ere his warning was sadly fulfilled; for the two savages finding they were not pursued, and thirsting for revenge, turned and fired almost simultaneously, with aims so deadly, that one of the young men, by the name of Beecher, fell mortally wounded and expired a moment after; and another, by the name of Morris, had his wrist shattered by a ball. This fatal event produced a panic in the others, who at once fled precipitately into the darkness, leaving Mrs. Younker, who had by this time gained her feet, standing alone by the fire, a bewildered spectator of the terrible tragedies that had so lately been enacted by her side. To her Boone now immediately advanced, notwithstanding the caution he had given the others; and turning to him as he came up, the good lady exclaimed, in a tone of astonishment:
"Why, Colonel Boone, be this here you? Why when did you come—and how on yarth did ye git here—and what in the name o' all creation has been happening? For ye see I war jest dosing away thar by the fire, and dreaming all sorts of things, like all nater, when somehow I kind o' thought I'd all at once turned into a man and gone to war a rale soldier; and the battle had opened, and the big guns war blazing away, and the little guns war popping off, and the soldiers war shrieking and groaning and falling around me, like all possessed; and men a trampling, and horses a running like skeered deer; and then I sort o' woke up, and jumped up, and seed all them dead Injen wretches; and then I jest begun to think as how it warn't no dream at all, but a living truth, all 'cept my being a man and a soldier, as you com'd up. Well, ef this arn't a queer world," resumed the good dame, catching breath meanwhile, "as Preacher Allprayer used to say, then maybe as how I don't know nothing at all about it."
"Your dream war a very nateral one, Mrs. Younker," returned Boone, who, during the speech of the other, had been actively employed in scattering the burning brands, to prevent the recurrence of another sad catastrophe; "and I'm rejoiced to see that you've escaped unharmed, amid this bloody work. Allow me to set you free;" and as he spoke, he drew his scalping knife, and severed the thongs that bound her wrists.
"Gracious on me!" cried the dame, chafing the parts which had been swollen by the tightness of the cords; "how clever 'tis to get free agin, and have the use o' one's hands and tongue, to do and say jest what a body pleases; for d'ye know, Colonel Boone, them thar imps of Satan war awfully afeared o' my talking to 'em, to convince 'em they war the meanest varmints in the whole univarsul yarth o' creation; and actually put a peremshus stop to my saying what I thought on 'em; although I told 'em as how it war a liberty as these blessed colonies war this moment fighting for with the hateful red-coated Britishers. But, Lord presarve us! gracious on us! where in marcy's sake is my dear, darling Ella?" concluded Mrs. Younker, with vehemence and alarm, as she now missed her adopted daughter for the first time.
"She's here, mother," answered a voice close behind her; and turning round, the dame uttered a cry of joy, sprung into the arms of her son Isaac, and wept upon his neck—occasionally articulating, in a choked voice:
"God bless you, Isaac! God bless you, son!—you're a good boy—the Lord's presarved you through the whole on't—the Lord be praised!—but your father, poor lad—your father!" and with a strong burst of emotion, she buried her face upon his breast, and wept aloud.
"I know it," sobbed forth Isaac, his whole frame shaken with the force of his feelings: "I—I know the whole on't, mother—Ella's told me. I'd rather he'd bin killed a thousand times; but thar's no help for it now!"
"No help for it!" cried Ella in alarm, who, having greeted the old hunter, with tearful eyes, now stood weeping by his side. "No help for it! Heaven have mercy!—say not so! They must—they must be rescued!" Then turning wildly to Boone, she grasped his hand in both of hers, and exclaimed: "Oh! sir, speak! tell me they can be saved—and on my knees will I bless you!"
A few words now rapidly uttered by Isaac, put the old hunter in possession of the facts, concerning the forced march of Younker and Reynolds, of which he had previously heard nothing; and musing on the information a few moments, he shook his head sadly, and said, with a sigh:
"I'm sorry for you, Ella—I'm sorry for all o' ye—I'm sorry on my own account—but I'm o' the opinion o' Isaac, that thar's no help for it now. They're too far beyond us—we're in the Indian country—our numbers are few—two or three o' the red varmints have escaped to give 'em information o' what's been done—they'll be thirsty for revenge—and nothing but a special Providence can now alter that prisoners' doom. I had hoped it war to be otherwise; but we must submit to God's decrees;" and raising his hand to his eyes, the old woodsman hastily brushed away a tear, and turned aside to conceal his emotion; while Ella, overcome by her feelings, at the thought of having parted, perhaps for the last time, from Algernon and her uncle, staggered forward and sunk powerless into the arms of Mrs. Younker, whose tears now mingled with her own.