“You will in time—I do not ask nor expect it all at once. I will love you so tenderly and wholly that you must return it, in time.”
“If you loved me as you say, you would free me and trust to my gratitude for your reward.”
“And thus lose you forever? No—no! I would rather, far rather kill you here, then take my own life, than to run that risk,” cried Lola, her eyes flaming.
A strong temptation was upon him. Why not dissimulate,—or even give a positive pledge, if by these means he could gain freedom?
“Wait—I must think of this a little. I can not answer you now,” he said, at length.
“You must be quick, for there’s no time to lose. Father will soon return. And he is looking for his messenger, sent to bring a band of savages here. They intend attacking the settlements, when your mother, sister, and the Hawksley family will be captured. Decide quickly, and you may be in time to save them.”
CHAPTER X.
THE CLEW.
Though Chigilli, the Kiowa chief, had acted so promptly in dispatching a runner for reinforcements, that fact was likely to avail him little, for the movements of the settlers were prompt and decided. The outlaw, James Mestayer, was the cause of this.
First, Jack Colton had recognized him, and now, recovered from the effects of his fall, was eager to attack them. Then Archibald Hawksley, in the confused struggle, believed that in him he saw the abductor of his daughter.
Though it was Albert Mestayer who performed that deed, his disguise had made him look like a much younger man, and there was a family resemblance between the uncle and nephew, so that Hawksley’s mistake was natural.