Lord H---- rose, and proceeded to the hall, where the men whom he had brought with him were busily engaged despatching such provisions as Mr. Prevost's house could afford on the spur of the moment. The boatman he sought was soon found. Following the young nobleman into the lesser room, he entered into full conference with Edith and her lover, and again expressed the opinion that no harm would happen to young Walter Prevost for several months at the least. "They have caught some one," he said, "to make sure of their revenge; and that is all they want for the present. Now they will look for the man himself who did it, and catch him, if they can."
"Can you tell where he is to be found?" asked Lord H---- in a quiet tone.
"Why, you would not give him up to them?" asked the man, sharply.
"Certainly not," replied Lord H----; "he is in safety, and of that safety I have no right to deprive him--it would make me an accessory to the act of the savages. But I wish to see him to tell him what has occurred, and to consult him as to what is to be done."
"That's a different case," observed the man, gravely; "and if that's all you want, I don't mind telling you that he is in Albany, at the public-house called 'The Three Boatmen.' Our people who rowed him down said he did not intend to leave Albany for a week or more."
"And now, Robert," said Edith, "can you tell me where I can get a messenger to the Oneidas? I know you loved my brother Walter well; and I think, if we can get somebody to go for me, we may save him."
"I did indeed love him well, Miss Prevost," replied the man, with his firm, hard eye moistened, "and I'd do anything in reason to save him. It's a sad pity we did not know of this yesterday; for a half-breed Onondagua runner passed by and got some milk from us; and I gave him the panther's skin which you, my lord, told some of our people to send in the poor lad's name to the daughter of the old chief, Black Eagle."
Edith turned her eyes to her lover's face, and Lord H---- replied to their inquiring look, saying--
"It is true, Edith, Walter shot a panther in the wood, and wished to send the skin to Otaitsa. We had no time to lose at the moment; but, as we came back, I induced the guides to skin it, and made them promise to dry and send it forward by the first occasion."
"I strapped it on the runner's back myself," said the man whom Edith called Robert, "and also gave him the money you sent for him, my lord. He would have taken any message readily enough, and one could have trusted him. But it may be months before such another chance offers, I guess. Look here, Miss Edith," he continued, turning towards her with a face full of earnest expression, "I would go myself, but what would come of it? They would only kill me instead of your brother; for one man's as good as another to them in such cases, and perhaps he might not get off either. But I've a wife and two young children, ma'am, and it makes me not quite so ready to risk my life as I was a few years ago."