"The girl is concealed twelve miles away, in the Cavern of the Elk. I was going there with food when I was shot. Make haste."
Scarcely had he finished ere Oliver and the chief disappeared.
"Beware of my vengeance," cried Bright-eye, "if you have spoken falsely."
"I have spoken the truth," said the wounded man, and fainted.
[CHAPTER XI.]
EXPLANATIONS.
We must go back a little in order to explain how the three hunters were driven to seek hospitality in the hut of George Clinton, and what were the motives of the deadly hatred they had vowed against the wounded, almost dying, man.
At the time of which we write nearly the whole American continent, north and south, was owned by Spain, which ruled her provinces with a yoke of iron, closed to all other nations with as much jealousy as ever was shown by China.