“It shall! it shall!” and Kenowatha’s hand stole to Nanette’s, and then they returned to the fire. When another day had faded, the two avengers glided from the cavern, by an entrance seldom used, and started toward the Ottawa village--intent upon the rescue of Wayne’s intrepid spy. Effie St. Pierre, than whom woman never possessed a braver heart, was content to remain with the wounded major until their return. The two avengers fell confident of crowning their extremely hazardous enterprise with success; but could they have foreseen the events which transpired in the cave before dawn, it is doubtful whether they would have went forth. CHAPTER IX. THE DEATH LEAGUE AT WORK. A trio of phantom figures gliding cautiously up iron-gray rocks, wearing a ghastly hue in the dim light of the stars. Now and then they pause in the shade of a crag, and listen with upturned faces. But, not a sound comes to their ears; the night overhead is as silent as that which sleeps upon the bosom of the stream a hundred feet below. At last, when within perhaps thirty feet of the top of the cliff, they halt at the mouth of a cave which seems to nestle far within the rocks, and whose gloomy aspect, now relieved by the song of a nightingale perched over the aperture, is as foreboding as such a spot can well be. Now the trio place their heads together, and this is what their lips say: “Who shall lead the way?” The question is quickly answered. “Wacomet.” “It is well,” was the whispered answer. “Let Wacomet lead the way into the She-wolf’s den, and Leather-lips and the Speckled Snake will crawl at his heels.” “Wacomet is sure that we have found the She-wolf’s lair, and our brothers will do nothing but frighten lizards, owls and bats from their holes. The red-man’s Terror, dreaming not of a foe, sleeps beside the White Fox, and they will wake in the Ottawa’s arms.” Again, but with Wacomet in the van, the trio move forward. The Death League was at work. Below the trio whom we have seen enter the Girl Avenger’s home, the remainder of the band, headed by Joe Girty and Turkey-foot, were exploring other cavernous openings, leading inward from the cliff, for, to a certainty, Nanette’s cave was not known to her enemies. Time and again she had been pursued by the Indians, but she had in the end eluded them by darting down the precipice, and disappearing in one of the openings I have described. The place of Stomah had been filled by the bloodthirsty Speckled Snake, one of the braves who accompanied Wacomet, and a savage who had lost three brothers by the delicate hand of the girl demon. He entered the League with a zest born of the grossest revenge, and took the terrible oath with a vindictiveness that sent a shudder to his co-swearers’ hearts.