"Why, this!" said Verty, half extending his arm, and pointing toward a far imaginary horizon, on which his dreamy eyes were fixed--"this! don't you see it? My tribe! my Delawares--there in the woods! They attack the house, and carry off the child in the garden playing with the necklace. His nurse is killed--poor thing! her blood is on the fountain! Now they go into the great woods with the child, and an Indian woman takes him and will not let them kill him--he is so pretty with his long curls like the sunshine: you might take him for a girl! The Indian woman holds before him a bit of looking-glass, stolen from the house! Look! they will have his life--oh!" And crouching, with an exclamation of terror, Verty shuddered. "Give me my rifle!" he cried; "they are coming there! Back!" And the young man rose erect, with flashing eyes. "The woman flies in the night," he continues, becoming calm again; "they pursue her--she escapes with the boy--they come to a deserted lodge--a lodge! a lodge! Why, it is our lodge in the hills! It's _ma mere_! and I was that child! Am I mad?" And Verty raised his head, and looked round him with terror. His eye fell upon Mr. Rushton, who, breathing heavily, his looks riveted to his face, his lips trembling, seemed to control some overwhelming emotion by a powerful effort. The lawyer rose, and laid his hand upon Verty's shoulder--it trembled. "You are--dreaming--," he gasped. Suddenly, a brilliant flash darted from his eye. With a movement, as rapid as thought, he tore the clothes from the young man's left shoulder, so as to leave it bare to the armpit. Exactly on the rounding of the shoulder, which was white, and wholly free from the copper-tinge of the Indian blood, the company descried a burn, apparently inflicted in infancy. The dazzled eyes of the lawyer almost closed--he fell into the old leather chair, and sobbing, "my son! my son Arthur!" would have fainted. He was revived promptly, and the wondering auditors gathered around him, listening, while he spoke--the shaggy head, leaning on the shoulder of Verty, who knelt at his feet, and looked up in his eyes with joy and wonder.