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 "What was that?" asked one of the men.

"I should say that somebody had been leaning against the boards in that direction, and then suddenly removed the weight," the woman answered, pointing toward the place from which the sound had seemed to issue. "Who knows but our whole conversation may have been overheard?"

"And who cares?" was the response of the boldest villain. "We'll have a drink, a game of cards, and then to bed. I'll risk to-morrow."

Augustus Reid did not hear these closing words. He had withdrawn at the moment in which the creaking sound was heard in the hut, and was now rushing through the forest at the top of his speed. He heeded not the increasing storm, or the impediments of the way. The wigwam of the old chief, his father, which he had so lately seen in a tidy, cheerful state,—was that no more? Were the inmates burned? or still living, and writhing in tortures, exposed to the pitiless storm?