Speak, what have you
heard?"
With these questions returned the calm and self-possession
of the officer. He at once saw the importance of his
answer, on which hung not merely his own last faint chance
of safety, but that also of his generous deliverer.
Struggling to subdue the disgust which he felt at holding
converse with this atrocious monster, he asked in turn,--
"Am I then the only one whom the warriors have overtaken
in their pursuit?"
"There was a woman, the sister of that boy," and he
pointed contemptuously to the young chief who had so
recently assailed him, and who now, in common with his
followers, stood impatiently listening to a colloquy that
was unintelligible to all. "Speak truly, was SHE not the
traitress who conducted you here?"
"Had you found me here," returned the officer, with
difficulty repressing his feelings, "there might have
been some ground for the assertion; but surely the councils
of the chiefs could not be overheard at the distant point
at which you discovered me."
"Why then were you there in this disguise?--and who is
he," again holding up the bloody scalp, "whom I have
despoiled of this?"
"There are few of the Ottawa Indians," returned Captain
de Haldimar, "who are ignorant I once saved that young
woman's life.
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