OUR HOMESTEAD--MY SISTER AND LILY LOST--ANXIETY OF THE BLACK NURSE--WE SET OFF TO TRY AND FIND THEM--FOLLOWING UP THE TRAIL--TRACKS FOUND--DIO PUSHES AHEAD--ON THE SHORES OF THE LAKE--APPEARANCE OF A CANOE--WE DETERMINE TO TAKE THE OCCUPANTS PRISONERS--THE CAPTURE--ROSE ACTING AS GUARD--THE WHITE MAN SECURED--I RECOGNISE AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE--THE WAY WE TREATED HIM--SEARCHING ALONG THE LAKE SHORE, WE COME UPON AN ENCAMPMENT--OVERHEAR THE CONVERSATION--OUR PRESENCE DISCOVERED--EFFECTS OF THE WAR-WHOOP--FLIGHT OF THE PARTY WITH DIO--THE MIDNIGHT PURSUIT--AN UNLOOKED-FOR REINFORCEMENT--RELEASE OF THE BLACK--OUR PRISONERS--LYNCH LAW--A VILLAINOUS PLOT REVEALED--WE ARRIVE AT SMILING VALLEY FARM. We were approaching the farm with our packages of skins and meats; Dio and I had hurried on ahead, as I was anxious to inform my father of the intelligence we had received from the Indian. The house, perched on the side of a hill, was already in sight, and very picturesque it looked, with the stream flowing below it, and backed by ranges of mountains towering one beyond the other, the more distant capped by eternal snows. Evening was approaching, but the sun still tinged the eastern slopes and the summits of the tall trees with a ruddy glow, when we caught sight of a person running towards us. "Why! dat is Rose?" exclaimed Dio; "what she want?" As she got near us I saw that her countenance exhibited unusual alarm and anxiety. "What's the matter?" I asked. Panting from her exertions and the long run she had had, she was at first unable to reply. "De young ladies! de young ladies! you seen dem? Dey went out long dis path, and have not yet come back. Oh, dear! oh, dear! can anything have happened to dem?" On hearing this I became alarmed, for as we had not met the girls, it was very certain that they had taken some other path. Rose further said that they had been absent for some hours, though they had promised to return early in the afternoon. She confessed that she had not told my mother or Biddy, and she was the only person in the house who knew of their having intended to go farther than usual. Grizzlies, wolves, panthers, and prowling Indians instantly flashed across my mind; still I hoped that even before this they might have returned home by some other way. Dio, who was evidently far more alarmed than I felt, suddenly, without a moment's warning of his intention, darted away through some thick brushwood to the eastward, exclaiming, "Me find 'em! me find 'em!"