[Gascoyne, The Sandal Wood Trader by R. M. Ballantyne]@TWC D-Link book
Gascoyne, The Sandal Wood Trader

CHAPTER X
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How _can_ she have come up here ?" "I say, lad, hist!" said Bumpus, in a hoarse whisper; "here's another fut that don't belong to--what's her name,--Puppy, did ye say ?" "Why! it's Alice's," whispered the boy, his face becoming instantly grave, while an unwonted expression of anxiety crossed it; "and here's that of a savage beside it.

He must have changed his intention; or, perhaps, he came this way to throw the people who were chasing them off the scent." Corrie was right.

Finding that he was hotly pursued, Keona had taken advantage of the first rocky ground he reached to diverge abruptly from the route he had hitherto followed in his flight; and, the further to confuse his pursuers, he had taken the almost exhausted child up in his arms and carried her a considerable distance, so that if his enemies should fall again on his track the absence of the little footprints might induce them to fancy they were following up a wrong scent.
In this he was so far successful; for the native settlers, as we have seen, soon gave up the chase, and returned with one of the child's shoes, which had fallen off unobserved by the savage.
But there was one of the pursuers who was far ahead of the others, and who was urged to continue the chase by the strongest of all motives,--love.

Poor Kekupoopi had no sooner heard of the abduction of her young mistress than she had set off at the top of her speed to a well-known height in the mountains, whence, from a great distance, she could observe all that went on below.

On the wings of affection she had flown, rather than walked, to this point of observation, and, to her delight, saw not only the pursuers, but the fugitives in the valley below.


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