By this time the short July night was drawing to a close, and there were signs of the coming dawn in the east. All through the solemn darkness the had continued, and scenes were on both sides of the Susquehanna which the pen has never placed on paper, and which to-day come down to us only in the legends of those who looked upon and survived to tell of them.  
Among the none was more than Jake Golcher, the Tory. But for his strong of the pretty Maggie Brainerd not one of the little party of would have survived capture for fifteen minutes.
 
He was not the first, as he shall not be the last, bad man who has been restrained from evil by the sweet beauty of some who, unconsciously to herself, has woven her subtle web around him.
 
Had she walked up to him and promised to be his wife on condition that every one of her friends should be released, he would have complied, though he might have resorted to treachery to gratify the demand for revenge on the part of his Indian allies.
 
But the father of Maggie had his claim, and the point at last was reached when he was forced to see that every one of the fugitives, including Maggie herself, looked upon him with unspeakable , and they would die before themselves to him.
 
"What's the sense of my fooling longer?" he , apart and upon them; "they hate me worse than Satan himself, and if Maggie should pledge me her hand, that old father or the brother of her'n wouldn't let her keep her promise. The Injins have got so mad at my soft-heartedness that they begin to 'spect me, and they've gone over to t' other side the river to have their fun there, 'cause there ain't much of gettin' it here."
 
The renegade a significant truth, and, looking around, he was able to count six Senecas who remained with him. Some of the others who were out hunting in the wood might return, but the chances were against it, and more than likely they had gone off to join in the orgies of which we only dare hint.
 
Striding across the brief space, Jake Golcher paused in front of Maggie Brainerd and said:
 
"You have had more mercy to-night than you had a right to expect, and more than you'll get any longer."
 
"Why do you talk to me thus?" asked the scared maiden, who could not fail to understand what he meant; "why do you feel such of us who have never showed aught but kindness to you?"
 
"Bah!" interrupted the Tory, angrily; "why do you get over that stuff to me? I want no more of it. The time for begging mercy has gone by. If you had treated me right a while ago it would have been well—"
 
"Oh, Jake, how can you?"
 
The girl was about to rush forward and throw herself on her knees before the man, when her father, with flashing eye, interposed.
 
"Maggie, I forbid you to speak a word to such a scoundrel as he. Sit down and keep silence."
 
The obedient girl complied, as she would have done had she known that death was to be the penalty.
 
She placed herself beside Eva, and the two, wrapping their arms about each other, wept in silence.
 
Aunt Peggy, as if conscious the crisis had come, ceased her cooking and softly seated herself beside them, without a word.
 
Mr. Brainerd, proud and as ever, sat bolt upright on the fallen tree, with arms folded, looking as keenly as an eagle in the face of the being whom he above any of his kind.
 
The Senecas watched them all, and it was easy to detect the signs of among them, for they had been baffled too long of their .
 
As Jake Golcher retreated a step or two the Indians uttered a short of surprise, as well they might, for two figures strode for-toward out of the gloom in the light of the camp-fire.
 
One of them was Habakkuk McEwen, who led by the arm Fred Godfrey, the latter stepping briskly, while a strange half-smile about his handsome mouth.
 
Mr. Brainerd and the rest of the fugitives were thunderstruck, and totally at a loss to understand the meaning of the spectacle.
 
Fortunat............