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 did at the approach of winter, to the white settlements, for the purpose of trade and traffic, or the resounding axes in the forest had led them to abandon their homes and journey toward the deeper wilderness of the east, for security. A week's search proved fruitless, and Augustus Reid returned, disheartened, to the scene of the conflagration.

It was night when he reached the spot. All was black and coldnow. No smoke, no stench, no eye of fire gleaming from the ruins. He pulled his blanket close about him, bent his head in its folds, and walked slowly around and around the desolate spot. While he was thus engaged, deeply absorbed in his own melancholy thoughts, the eyes of a man and woman who stood in the shadow of a pine-tree, not far off, were fixed upon him with terror in their gaze. His tall form, thus enveloped, looked almost spectral in the uncertain light.

The two persons under the tree soon drew near