"Thee is but a boy in the woods, if thee never heard of Wenonga, the Shawnee," replied Nathan hastily,--"a man that has left the mark of his axe on many a ruined cabin along the frontier, from the Bloody Run of Bedford to the Kenhawa and the Holston. He is the chief that boasts he has no heart: and, truly, he has none, being a man that has drunk the blood of women and children--Friend! thee kinswoman's scalp is already hanging at his girdle!" This horrible announcement, uttered with a fierce earnestness that proved the sincerity of the speaker, froze Roland's blood in his veins, and he stood speechless and gasping; until Nathan, noting his agitation, and recovering in part from his own ferment of spirits, exclaimed, even more hastily than before--"Truly, I have told thee what is false--thee kinswoman is safe,--a prisoner, but alive and safe." "You have told me she is dead--murdered by the foul assassins," said Roland; "and if it be so, it avails not to deny it. If it be so, Nathan," he continued, with a look of desperation, "I call Heaven and earth to witness, that I will pursue the race of the slayers with thrice the fury of their own malice,--never to pause, never to rest, never to be satisfied with vengeance, while an Indian lives with blood to be shed, and I with strength to shed it." "Thee speaks like a man!" said Nathan, grasping the soldier's hand, and fairly crushing it in his gripe,--"that is to say," he continued, suddenly letting go his hold, and seeming somewhat abashed at the fervour of his sympathy, "like a man, according to thee own sense of matters and things. But do thee be content; thee poor maid is alive, and like to be so; and that thee may be assured of it, I will soon tell thee the thing that is on my mind. Friend, do thee answer me a question,--Has thee any enemy among the Injuns?--that is to say, any reprobate white man like this Abel Doe,--who would do thee a wrong?" The soldier started with surprise, and replied in the negative. "Has thee no foe, then, at home, whom thee has theeself wronged to that point that he would willingly league with murdering Injuns to take thee life?" "I have my enemies, doubtless, like all other men," said Roland, "but none so basely, so improbably malignant."