There was no response. He placed her gently upon the blankets, and then with a face that was livid with rage, grasped his musket which had fallen to the ground.
"Which of you has dared to do this?" he asked, and the ominous click of the lock of the gun proved that he was in earnest, and that all of his worst passions were aroused.
No one answered. I looked towards Smith, expecting to hear him explain every thing; but, to my surprise, he was silent; evidently too much astonished at the unexpected turn which the affair had assumed, to speak.
My look was misconstrued by the indignant convict, for before I could speak, the long gun was levelled at the breast of Smith, and in another moment all his hopes and fears would have been at an end, had not his child started up and rushed towards him.
"Not him!" she shouted, wildly. "O God, not him!"
He dropped the muzzle of his gun, but his fierce eyes still glared from Fred to me.
"Which of these two?"
He indicated us with a motion of the hand that held the gun, and looked in his child's face for confirmation.
"Neither, father—so help me Heaven, neither. Without the aid of these friends I should have perished."