"Scalped?" motioned Colonel Lewis significantly.
"He belongs to your party," observed Willett quietly. Then, looking around as the rifle-fire to the left broke out again: "The pursuit has ended, gentlemen. What punishment more awful could we leave them to than these trackless solitudes? For I tell you that those few among them who shall attain the Canadas need fear no threat of hell in the life to come, for they shall have served their turn. Sound the recall!"
I laid my hand upon his saddle, looking up into his face:
"Pardon," I said, in a low voice; "I must go on!"
"Carus! Carus!" he said softly, "have they not told you?"
"Told me?" I stared. "What? What—in the name of God?"
"She was taken when we struck their rear-guard at one o'clock this afternoon! Was there no one to tell you, lad!"
"Unharmed?" I asked, steadying myself against his stirrup.
"Faint with fatigue, brier-torn, in rags—his vengeance, but—nothing worse. That quarter-breed Montour attended her, supported her, struggled on with her through all the horrors of this retreat. He had herded the Valley prisoners together, guarded by Cayugas. The executioner lies dead a mile below, his black face in the water. And here he lies!"
He swung his horse, head sternly averted. I flung myself into my saddle.