they had started over some of the trails and ere long would strike the
one along which the three had fled.

"A wonderful Providence has preserved us thus far," said Jack Everson;
"but it is too much to expect we shall emerge unscathed from this hell
hole."

"I hope nothing will happen to Mary before we rejoin her."

"We shall be with her in a minute."

Nevertheless, a vague fear disturbed both. The parent was again
leading, and he unconsciously hastened his footsteps. Only a slight
distance beyond they came to the small opening where they had left her
standing but a brief while before. Since the men had passed over the
intervening distance to the river it was unlikely that anything had
occurred to alarm the young woman, but there was no saying what might
happen in those times and in that part of the world.

The real shock came to the parent when he turned in the trail and saw
the open space but failed to observe his daughter. He hurried on
without speaking, but Jack, directly behind him, had made the
discovery, for a moment he was so breathless and dizzy that he barely
saved himself from falling. His heart became lead, and the awful
conviction got hold of him that the most woeful affliction of all had
come upon them, and that his betrothed was lost irrecoverably.

But the sight of the anguish of the parent when he turned about and
faintly gasped, "Where is my child?" brought the self-command of the
young man back.