“Hope! Hope!”

“At all events, the companionship of her mother and sister will soon win her from the thoughts of savage life. Fear not! She will be your daughter again.”

I urged these ideas for the purpose of giving consolation. Seguin made no reply; but I saw that the painful and anxious expression still remained clouding his features.

My own heart was not without its heaviness. A dark foreboding began to creep into it from some undefined cause. Were his thoughts in communion with mine?

“How long,” I asked, “before we can reach your house on the Del Norte?”

I scarce knew why I was prompted to put this question. Some fear that we were still in peril from the pursuing foe?

“The day after to-morrow,” he replied, “by the evening. Heaven grant we may find them safe!”

I started as the words issued from his lips. They had brought pain in an instant. This was the true cause of my undefined forebodings.

“You have fears?” I inquired, hastily.

“I have.”