"I knew it would be so! Look there, Miss Hayward! Look there!"
"What do you mean?" yelled Branch.
"That you are foiled at last, fiend of darkness, that you are."
Let us return to Springfield.
The excitement endured by Hayward, together with the pain he suffered from the constant irritation of his wounds, and his loss of blood, were more than he could bear, and he sank to the earth, although he still retained his consciousness. Nettleton remained by his side, although Hayward urged him to join his brothers in the unequal contest.
"There ain't no occasion to do that!" said the brave fellow. "Them Body-guard will whip them darn skunks in less than three minutes, and besides some on 'em might come around you, and I calculate if they do, to make them smell brimstone."
The fight was over. Nettleton and William Margrave assisted Captain Hayward to the city, and secured a room for him in one of the houses occupied by a Union family. In a short time both Johnson and Adjutant Hinton joined him. The Indian was absent.
"Have you received any intelligence of my sister?" asked Hayward, in a trembling voice.
"Not yet, but Fall-leaf is absent, and I feel satisfied that he is with or near both your sister and mine," replied Margrave. "He will return with them very soon, I believe."
"Did you see or hear anything of Branch?" asked Hayward.