the crime of his father in the abduction of one of their race. If Nattie had perished miserably with her Indian companions, he thought it as well to let her tragic history end there, and, by avoiding the inquiries which would naturally be made, in the excited state of feeling which the first knowledge of the affair would occasion, that distressing and useless revealings might be prevented. He had once entertained the hope that, through his efforts, the abducted girl might be restored to her friends, but what good could result to those friends from the knowledge that she had perished in the flames of an Indian wigwam? It would, rather, be a kindness, to conceal from them a fate so dreadful. This, Augustus Reid, or Torch Eye, thought that he might be able to do. The Frenchmen were not likely to do anything so averse to their own safety as the spreading abroad of the tale of their lawless work would prove, and, by taking but a few red men to the scene of desolation, to assist in the searching out and
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