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"Such way es will only take unkindly your efforts aton of such work"

"I should be overjoyed to e of a steel blade," interposed De Noyan decidedly, and I noticed hi beyond his wife "What do you expect, Master Benteen, these villains will do to us?"

"I read no sign of mercy in any face yet seen," I answered cautiously "It would be against all savage nature to forgive the loss of those warriors sent ho less, and by torture; still they h I know not the war custoh ht, and for a fewof the priests about the altar Then Cairnes silently pushed over toward looer It hile thus busily engaged Mada her words softly, so that they could not reach the ears of the others

"If the end prove according to our fears, could you outline e prompted the question, I could perceive that in her eyes as they looked into my own, and some way their expression yielded me boldness to answer truthfully

"I aravely

Her hands closed down tightly about each other

"That is what renders my heart so heavy in this peril, Geoffrey Benteen I could die easily, without tremor, beside you; nor would I shrink back from torture, did it of necessity come to me, for I possess a faith in Christ which would sustain me in such an ordeal But this--O God!--it is too ht that I may be reserved for a worse fate than death, may be compelled to live for months, perhaps years, as the hues--I, a lady of France! It isin her eyes, andher own, closed over it with syrant there be some escape," I said earnestly; it was all that came to my lips

"But I feel there is none I have not lived upon the border of this vast wilderness allthe custoes If they spare a woman from stake or knife it is that they raded slave I know this, and have read the truth anew in those faces glaring upon me to-day There remains but one faint hope--that woman who seees to mercy"