Vytal assented, and in a moment the captive lay bound hand and foot with thongs of hide from the Indian’s girdle.
Virginia came to her mother. “I will go with Dark Eye.”
Eleanor rested a hand on her daughter’s head, and turned to Vytal. “Is it safe?”
“Yes, with him.”
Together Virginia Dare and Dark Eye left the room, only hesitating for a moment beyond the threshold to turn and wave farewell. “Have no fear,” said Manteo’s son. “The Winginas are put to flight; the Spaniards have left the town. Later we meet you on the shore.” The cresset flared high; its radiance fell across those two slight figures side by side in the near darkness.
The old world and the new had plighted troth, and here were the symbols of an everlasting union.
In another instant the picture had vanished—White Doe and Dark Eye were hidden in the forest.
“Now come,” said Vytal to Eleanor, and together they left the cabin. “We have won,” he declared; “yet lost completely.”
She glanced up at him with renewed apprehension, questioningly. In silence he led her to the shore. “See,” he said, and she looked up to the headland. A sheet of flame sprang heavenward from the town. “And look!” Two shadows were receding slowly southward. “Those are the enemy’s vessels.”