At about the same time that Henry Billings, under the protection of his Indian friends, set out on his last expedition up the river, a single canoe with four persons in it, put out from under the shadow of Old Crow Nest, on its way down the stream.
The individual by whom the canoe was directed was an Indian, a man somewhat advanced in years. The others were a white girl, an Indian woman, and a negro boy.
In short, the party consisted of Fire Cloud, Hellena Rosenthrall, Lightfoot, and Black Bill, on their way to the city.
They had passed the fleet of canoes in which Billings had embarked, but not knowing whether it belonged to a party of friendly Indians or otherwise.
Fire Cloud had avoided coming in contact with it for fear of being delayed, or of the party being made prisoners and carried back again.
Could they have but met, what a world of trouble would it not have saved to all parties interested!
As it was, Hellena arrived in safety, greatly to the delight of her father and friends, who had long mourned for her as for one they never expected to see again in this world.
The sum of Hellena's happiness would now have been complete, had it not been for the dark shadow cast over it by the absence of her lover.
And this shadow grew darker, and darker, as weeks, and months, rolled by without bringing any tidings of the missing one.
What might have been the effects of the melancholy into which she was fast sinking, it is hard to tell, had not the unexpected return of the one for whose loss she was grieving, restored her once more to her wonted health and spirits.