Will! I saw a dark form stealing along in the woods from tree to tree!” exclaimed Helen in a startled whisper.
“So did I. It was an Indian, or I never saw one. Walk faster. Once round the bend in the road we’ll be within sight of the fort; then we’ll run,” replied Will. He had turned pale, but maintained his composure.
They increased their speed, and had almost come up to the curve in the road, marked by dense undergrowth on both sides, when the branches in the thicket swayed violently, a sturdy little man armed with a musket appeared from among them.
“Avast! Heave to!” he commanded in a low, fierce voice, leveling his weapon. “One breeze from ye, an’ I let sail this broadside.”
“What do you want? We have no valuables,” said Will, speaking low.
Helen stared at the little man. She was speechless with terror. It flashed into her mind as soon as she recognized the red, evil face of the sailor, that he was the accomplice upon whom Brandt had told Metzar he could rely.
“Shut up! It’s not ye I want, nor valuables, but this wench,” growled Case. He pushed Will around with the muzzle of the musket, which action caused the young man to turn a sickly white and shrink involuntarily with fear. The hammer of the musket was raised, and might fall at the slightest jar.
“For God’s sake! Will, do as he says,” cried Helen, who saw murder in Case’s eyes. Capture or anything was better than sacrifice of life.
“March!” ordered Case, with the musket against Will’s back.
Will hurriedly started forward, jostling Helen, who had preceded him. He was forced to hurry, because every few moments Case pressed the gun to his back or side.
Without another word the sailor marched them swiftly along the road, which now narrowed down to a trail. His intention, no doubt, was to put as much distance between him and the fort as was possible. No more than a mile had been thus traversed when two Indians stepped into view.
“My God! My God!” cried Will as the savages proceeded first to bind Helen’s arms behind her, and then his in the same manner. After this the journey was continued in silence, the Indians walking beside the prisoners, and Case in the rear.
Helen was so terrified that for a long time she could not think coherently. It seemed as if she had walked miles, yet did not feel tired. Always in front wound the narrow, leaf-girt trail, and to the left the broad river gleamed at intervals through open spaces in the thickets. Flocks of birds rose in the line of march. They seemed tame, and uttered plaintive notes as if in sympathy.
About noon the trail led to the river bank. One of the savages disappeared in a copse of willows, and presently reappeared carrying a birch-bark canoe. Case ordered Helen and Will into the boat, got in himself, and the savages, taking stations at bow and stern, paddled out into the stream. They shot over under the lee of an island, around a rocky point, and across a strait to another island. Beyond this they gained the Ohio shore, and beached the canoe.
“Ahoy! there, cap’n,” cried Case, pushing Helen up the bank before him, and she, gazing upward, was more than amazed to see Mordaunt leaning against a tree.
“Mordaunt, had you anything to do with this?” cried Helen breathlessly.
“I had all to do with it,” answered the Englishman.
“What do you mean?”
He did not meet her gaze, nor make reply; but turned to address a few words in a low tone to a white man sitting on a log.
Helen knew she had seen this person before, and doubted not he was one of Metzar’s men. She saw a rude, bark lean-to, the remains of a camp-fire, and a pack tied in blankets. Evidently Mordaunt and his men had tarried here awaiting such developments as had come to pass.
“You white-faced hound!” hissed Will, beside himself with rage when he realized the situation. Bound though he was, he leaped up and tried to get at Mordaunt. Case knocked him on the head with the handle of his knife. Will fell with blood streaming from a cut over the temple.
The dastardly act aroused all Helen’s fiery courage. She turned to the Englishman with eyes ablaze.
“So you’ve at last found your level. Border-outlaw! Kill me at once. I’d rather be dead than breathe the same air with such a coward!”
“I swore I’d have you, if not by fair means then by foul,” he answered, with dark and haggard face.
“What do you intend to do with me now that I am tied?” she demanded scornfully.
“Keep you a prisoner in the woods till you consent to marry me.”
Helen laughed in scorn. Desperate as was the plight, her natural courage had arisen at the cruel blow dealt her cousin, and she faced the Englishman with flashing eyes and undaunted mien. She saw he was again unsteady, and had the cough and catching breath habitual to certain men under the influence of liquor. She turned her attention to Will. He lay as he had fallen, with blood streaming over his pale face and fair hair. While she gazed at him Case whipped out his long knife, and looked up at Mordaunt.
“Cap’n, I’d better loosen a hatch fer him,” he said brutally. “He’s dead cargo fer us, an’ in the way.”
He lowered the gleaming point upon Will’s chest.
“Oh-h-h!” breathed Helen in horror. She tried to close her eyes but was so fascinated she could not.
“Get up. I’ll have no murder,” ordered Mordaunt. “Leave him here.”
“He’s not got a bad cut,” said the man sitting on the log. “He’ll come to arter a spell, go back to ther fort, an’ give an alarm.”
“What’s that to me?” asked Mordaunt sharply. “We shall be safe. I won’t have him with us because some Indian or another will kill him. It’s not my purpose to murder any one.”
“Ugh!” grunted one of the savages, and pointed eastward with his hand. “Hurry-long-way-go,” he said in English. With the Indians in the lead the party turned from the river into the forest.
Helen looked back into the sandy glade and saw Will lying as they had left him, unconscious, with his hands still bound tightly behind him, and blood running over his face. Painful as was the thought of leaving him thus, it afforded her relief. She assured herself he had not been badly hurt, would recover consciousness before long, and, even bound as he was, could make his way back to the settlement.
Her own situation, now that she knew Mordaunt had instigated the abduction, did not seem hopeless. Although dreading Brandt with unspeakable horror, she did not in the least fear the Englishman. He was mad to carry her off like this into the wilderness, but would force her to do nothing. He could not keep her a prisoner long while Jonathan Zane and Wetzel were free to take his trail. What were his intentions? Where was he taking her? Such questions as these, however, troubled Helen more than a little. They brought her thoughts back to the Indians leading the way with lithe and stealthy step. How had Mordaunt associated himself with these savages? Then, suddenly, it dawned upon her that Brandt also might be in this scheme to carry her off. She scouted the idea; but it returned. Perhaps Mordaunt was only a tool; perhaps he himself was being deceived. Helen turned pale at the very thought. She had never forgotten the strange, unreadable, yet threatening, expression which Brandt had worn the day she had refused to walk with him.
Meanwhile the party made rapid progress through the forest. Not a word was spoken, nor did any noise of rustling leaves or crackling twigs follow their footsteps. The savage in the lead chose the open and less difficult ground; he took advantage of glades, mossy places, and rocky ridges. This careful choosing was, evidently, to avoid noise, and make the trail as difficult to follow as possible. Once he stopped suddenly, and listened.
Helen had a good look at the savage while he was in this position. His lean, athletic figure resembled, in its half-clothed condition, a bronzed statue; his powerful visage was set, changeless like iron. His dark eyes seemed to take in all points of the forest