of hope, like a single stray gleam of sunlight, flashed suddenly through his mind,—"or she has escaped."
He sprang to his feet as he uttered the last word, and turned his face upward to the fair, blue sky above him, but the head drooped again as he thought:—
"If escaped, where is she? Whither could she have directed her steps from this burning wigwam? She may have been murdered by the wretches that fired her home, lest she might live as a witness against them, or she may have sunk down and died alone in the wilderness, from the agony of her own wounds, for she could hardly have escaped the fierce, raging flames without serious injury."
While Augustus Reid thus pondered, still walking around the ruins, he saw a glittering object among the rubbish which he had stirred up in his search for the burnt bodies, and going toward it, drew forth a partly melted metal box. It was of
