At sight of me, his passion burst all restraint.
"By God, sir!" he ejaculated, "if you were a soldier of mine, I would teach you what it meant to put us to such a wait as this! Know you not, Master Wayland, that the lives of helpless women and children may depend upon our haste?
And you hold us here in idleness while you wander along the lake-shore like a moonstruck boy!" Before I could answer these harsh words, the girl stepped lightly to my side, and standing there, her hand upon my arm, smiled back into his angry eyes.

I do not think he had even perceived her presence until that moment; for he stopped perplexed.
"And am I not worth the saving, Monsieur le Capitaine," she questioned, pouting her lips, "that you should blame him so harshly for having stopped to rescue me ?" His harsh glance of angry resentment softened as he gazed upon her.
"Ah! was that it, then ?" he asked, in gentler tones.

"But who are you?
Surely you are not unattended in this wilderness ?" "I am from Fort Dearborn," she answered, "and though only a girl, Monsieur, I have penetrated to the great West even farther than has Captain Wells." "How know you my name ?" "Mrs.Heald told me she believed you would surely come when you learned of our plight at the Fort,--it was for that she despatched the man Burns with the message,--and she described you so perfectly that I knew at once who you must be.

There are not so many white men travelling toward Dearborn now as to make mistake easy." "And the Fort ?" he asked, anxiously.

"Is it still garrisoned, or have we come too late ?" "It was safely held two days ago," she answered, "although hundreds of savages in war-paint were then encamped without, and holding powwow before the gate.