“Your only answer then is No?”
“No; I will never be your wife.”
“And I say you shall. Farewell! We will meet again.” And all the latent savage nature gleamed forth from his face as he swiftly and noiselessly disappeared into the forest.
Millicent, overcome with emotion, sank listlessly on the ground, where she remained for some time with her head bowed upon her knees, regardless of the beauty of the scene about her. Above, the sky was cloudless, a deep impenetrable blue, as seen through the heavy foliage of the grand primeval forest. At her feet stretched the calm, smooth lake, dotted here and there with tiny islands, so thickly wooded that they looked like escaped bits of the forest floating on the glassy surface of the water. For miles stretched the line of the shore, here straight, there gracefully curving, and everywhere heavily overhung by majestic trees. After a time she raised her eyes, and, stretching her hand with a hopeless gesture toward the lake, said, “Better to drown in that quiet water than to remain longer with these savages, now that Ninigret has turned foe also, and I have no friend to help me.”
“Let me be a friend to help you,” replied a manly voice close by.
Surprised and astonished Millicent sprang to her feet, and saw standing before her a tall, handsome man of perhaps five and thirty years, dressed in uniform.
“O sir! can I really hope that you will help a poor, distressed captive girl?”
“Of course I will,” he answered, moving near to her. “First tell me the circumstances of your captivity and”—
“Hush! do not speak so loud, or they will hear us and take you prisoner also. Come this way,” said Millicent, as she led him to a thick clump of trees near at hand. “A short distance from here, on yonder hill, is an Indian camp, which has been my home for many months.”
“How large is the encampment?” asked the young man, looking with interest and admiration at the poorly clad but refined and beautiful girl by his side.