“Do not excite yourself, Clearwater,” said the white girl. “Harbor your strength for the hour which shall demand it. I will return ere long, girl, and then we will wait for the arrival of Ahdeek.”
Selecting the best of the rifles—for her own true weapon still remained in the Indian village, and she hoped to recover it some day—she bade Clearwater good-by and plunged into the opening.
The way was dark, but as she had threaded it an hour before, with the Destroyer, she managed to elude many of the unseen dangers, and at length reached the lake-shore.
Death’s fateful silence brooded everywhere, but it was the silence that precedes the storm, and Silver Rifle listened keenly as she stood in the gloom, at the mouth of the passage.
“Shall I ascend to the forest?” she asked herself twice, and then answered in the affirmative by stepping forward.
The ascent of the bank was not difficult, and presently the daring girl crouched beneath the boughs of a tree, and strained her ears to catch the slightest sound.
Sue knew that Indians were abroad; the forests of Lake Superior were never rid of their presence, and she doubted not but that some red prowler would soon manifest himself near.
This thought still lingered in her mind, when a twig snapped and startled her.
It was the first sound that had greeted her ear since leaving the cave.
Was it brute or human?