Notwithstanding her great self-command, and the object that was constantly before the mind of Faith, she shuddered at the fierce pleasure with which her brother pronounced the extent of the vengeance, that, in his imaginary character, he believed he had taken on his enemies. Still cautious not to destroy an illusion which might aid her, in the so-long-defeated and so-anxiously-desired discovery, the woman repressed her horror, and continued-- "True--yet some were spared--surely the warriors carried prisoners back to their village. Thou didst not slay all?" "All." "Nay--thou speakest now of the miserables who were wrapt in the blazing block; but--but some, without, might have fallen into thy hands, ere the assailed sought shelter in the tower. Surely--surely thou didst not kill all?" The hard breathing of Ruth caught the ear of Whittal, and for a moment he turned to regard her countenance in dull wonder. But again shaking his head, he answered in a low, positive tone--"All;--ay, to the screeching women and crying babes!" "Surely there is a child--I would say there is a woman, in thy tribe, of fairer skin and of form different from most of thy people. Was not such an one led a captive from the burning of the Wish-Ton-Wish?" "Dost think the deer will live with the wolf, or hast ever found the cowardly pigeon in the nest of the hawk?" "Nay, thou art of different color thyself, Whittal, and it well may be, thou art not alone." The youth regarded his sister a moment with marked displeasure, and then, on turning to eat, he muttered--"There is as much fire in snow, as truth in a lying Yengeese?" "This examination must close," said Content, with a heavy sigh; "at another hour, we may hope to push the matter to some more fortunate result; but, yonder cometh one charged with especial service from the towns below, as would seem by the fact that he disregardeth the holiness of the day no less than by the earnest manner in which he is journeying." As the individual named was visible to all who chose to look in the direction of the hamlet, his sudden appearance caused a general interruption to the interest which had been so strongly awakened on a subject that was familiar to every resident in the valley. The early hour, the gait at which the stranger urged his horse, the manner in which he passed the open and inviting door of the Whip-Poor-Will, proclaimed him a messenger, who probably bore some communication of importance from the Government of the Colony to the younger Heathcote, who filled the highest station of official authority in that distant settlement. Observations to this purport had passed from mouth to mouth, and curiosity was actively alive, by the time the horseman rode into the court. There he dismounted, and, covered with the dust of the road, he presented himself, with the air of one who had passed the night in the saddle, before the man he sought.