"
"Do you think they have reached Maysville yet?"
"If unusually lucky, they have; but most probably not."
"Then there is a possibility of their being overtaken, you think?"
"There _may_ be; particularly if any bad luck has attended them."
"Quick, then, quick! away!--Have the boat decoyed to the shore, and
captured by the Indians! You understand, _captured_: the girl must on no
account be killed."
"You don't mean that I shall start out to-night in this storm and
darkness?"
"Yes, and without a moment's delay. Set the red dogs on the scent--capture
the girl, and you shall be rewarded on your own terms. Go, or it will be
too late!"
With some hesitation Ramsey obeyed, and when once in for the business,
pushed it forward with all the energy he could master. This fellow was on
friendly terms with the Indians, a band of whom--kind of
renegades--whenever he could come across them, would follow his orders, or
do his bidding. With a dispatch that would have done credit to the swiftest
courier in the days of chivalry, he pushed forward through the wilderness
to the usual place of rendezvous of this band, hoping to find and enlist
them in the enterprise on hand; but they were absent on some expedition of
their own. Not to be discouraged by one disappointment, Ramsey paused only
long enough to determine that his expected coadjutors were not to be found
in or about their usual lurking place, then continued his course down the
Ohio with unabated ardor, and on the second day came in sight of a boat
just at dusk of the evening.
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