Mrs.Varley was not given to nervous fears, but as she listened to the boy's recital of the slaughter of a party of white men, news of which had just reached the valley, her heart sank, and she prayed inwardly to Him who is the husband of the widow that her dear one might be protected from the ruthless hand of the savage.
After a short pause, during which young Marston fidgeted about and looked concerned, as if he had something to say which he would fain leave unsaid, Mrs.Varley continued,-- "Was it far off where the bloody deed was done ?" "Yes; three weeks off, I believe.

And Jim Scraggs said that he found a knife that looked like the one wot belonged to--to--" the lad hesitated.
"To whom, my boy?
Why don't ye go on ?" "To your son Dick." The widow's hands dropped by her side, and she would have fallen had not Marston caught her.
"O mother dear, don't take on like that!" he cried, smoothing down the widow's hair as her head rested on his breast.
For some time Mrs.Varley suffered the boy to fondle her in silence, while her breast laboured with anxious dread.
"Tell me all," she said at last, recovering a little.

"Did Jim see--Dick ?" "No," answered the boy.

"He looked at all the bodies, but did not find his; so he sent me over here to tell ye that p'r'aps he's escaped." Mrs.Varley breathed more freely, and earnestly thanked God; but her fears soon returned when she thought of his being a prisoner, and recalled the tales of terrible cruelty often related of the savages.
While she was still engaged in closely questioning the lad, Jim Scraggs himself entered the cottage, and endeavoured in a gruff sort of way to reassure the widow.
"Ye see, mistress," he said, "Dick is an oncommon tough customer, an' if he could only git fifty yards' start, there's not an Injun in the West as could git hold o' him agin; so don't be takin' on." "But what if he's been taken prisoner ?" said the widow.
"Ay, that's jest wot I've comed about.

Ye see it's not onlikely he's bin took; so about thirty o' the lads o' the valley are ready jest now to start away and give the red riptiles chase, an' I come to tell ye; so keep up heart, mistress." With this parting word of comfort, Jim withdrew, and Marston soon followed, leaving the widow to weep and pray in solitude.
Meanwhile an animated scene was going on near the block-house.