"If she would," she said uncertainly, and she looked at the Indian girl who stood a little apart from us. Turning to Winona I bade her go to the hut, and bring back the contents of the chest which my lady described to me. She turned and bounded back down the path out of sight, while we moved on slowly towards the flat rock. "It is well that thou didst come when thou didst," Margaret said, with a dainty little shudder, "else I know not what I would have done; for the Count DeNortier, who had protected me heretofore from Lord Dunraven, was dead, and I was alone and helpless. Is Lord Dunraven dead?" she asked suddenly, looking up at me. "Yes," I answered slowly. "Both he and the priest are dead. My lord fell over a deep precipice as I pursued him, and I had a narrow escape from the same fate." "I am glad," she said in a low voice. "I should have grieved if aught had befallen thee." "I thank thee," I said quietly, though my pulse bounded and danced at these simple words, which in her kindness she had spoken--and so we came to the boat. I helped her into the largest canoe (Manteo had already broken a great hole in the other with his hatchet, so that it could not be used to pursue us) and stepping in after her, I took my seat. A few minutes we waited thus in silence, and then Winona, panting and hot, came down the trail, a bundle in her arms which she, without a word, handed to me. She stepped into the canoe and picked up one of the paddles; Manteo took the other, and they pushed out boldly into the stream. "Manteo," I said, turning to him, as he knelt in the bottom of the canoe, and with powerful strokes urged her through the water, "it was just in time that thou didst arrive." "Manteo has been delayed long upon the journey," he answered. "Twice he nearly fell into the hands of hostile red men, and he only reached the lodges of the Cherokees a few hours after thou hadst departed. The chief, Windango, told me where thou hadst gone, so Manteo followed hot after the Eagle, and seeing the girl Winona, as I crept near the fire, I recognized her as the daughter of the chief of the Cherokees. In a few words she explained to me the trouble, and we gave the war whoop and rushed at them. Of a truth they acted as if the whole Cherokee nation were at their heels," and something like a smile crossed his dark face. "It sounded to me as though there must have been at least a hundred savages in the woods," I answered. "My brother Manteo shouted as though he might have been threescore himself," and I laughed at him. My eyes fell upon Margaret as she shivered in the stern, and catching up the great bearskin from the bottom of the boat, despite her protests, I wrapped it about her. "The beautiful one is more lovely than the dawn," said Manteo, a look of admiration for a moment upon his face. "I wonder not that the Eagle has traversed all these leagues to carry her back with him to his lodge." I looked at Margaret.