The Lost Trail

still I no

forest's

ss lies the

n ambushed f

ed-man's gl

ushed, the g

birds flit

ature smiles

upon and departed from the stage of life! How many plans, intentions and resolutions have been formed and either failed or succeeded! How m

within. Around the door plays a little boy, the image of his mother, while some distance away, under the shadow of the huge tree, sits the missionary himself. One leg is thrown over the other, an open book turned with its face downward upon his lap, while his hands are folded upon it, and he is looking o

s he has spent at home, but each summer he has occupied in wandering hither and thither through the great wilderness, in his vain searching for the lost trail. Cast down and dejected, he has never yet entirely abandoned hope of finding traces of her. He had followed out the suggestion

him. All traces of the strange hunter seemed irrecoverably gone, but Richter still devoutly believed the providence of God would adjust everything in due time. It is true, at seasons, he

occupying, indeed, were they, that he once or twice believed he was on the eve of learning something regarding her. While engaged in reading, the figures of h

m, when making his daily visits to the village, and made it a point never to lose sight of him. During these years of loneliness, also, Harvey Richter had hunted a great deal in the woods and had attained remarkable skill in the use of the rifle-an accomplishment for which he had reason to be thankful for the remainder of his life, as we shall presently see. On a pleasant afternoon, he fre

e animal came from, however, he had never been able to tell. It was a very acceptable present, as it became a companion for his Charley, who spent many and many an hour in sporting

eeks it had been the duty, or rather privilege, of Charley to bring his playmate home, and the child had become so expert that the father had little hesitation in permitting him to go out for it. The parent had misgivings, however, in allowing him to leave the house, so near dark, to go beyond his sight if not beyond his hearing; and for some time he had

folded hands, gazing absently off in the direction of the w

g late. Isn't it time

; do you hea

ste

ame with faint distinctnes

run as fast as you can and do

rection of the sound, shot into the wood, and, a mo

forest, when a startled expression flashed over his face and he sprung

ropping the grass or herbage. There is the clapper's tink-a-link, tink-a-link-an interval of silence-then the occasional tink, tink, tink, to be followed, perhaps, by a repetition of the first-named sounds, varied occasionally by a compound

equence must be a regular, unvarying, monotonous sound, which any ear can distinguish from the natural

orgot powder-horn and bullet, and had, as a consequence, but a single charge in his rifle. He had gone scarcely a hundred yards, when he encountered the goa

nsulted his wife years before, rose before him, and he saw his child already struggling in the savage's merciless grasp. Nearer and nearer he approached the sound, until he sudd

these an Indian was crouched, who held the goat-bell in his left hand, and caused the sound which so startled the father. The savage had hi

r recognized at once as the same man that he had felled to the floor of his cabin, four years before-called into use a little common sense, which, if it had been practised somewhat sooner, must have completely deluded the father and ac

zed, with a quick instinct, the villain who had felt the weight of his hand years before, and who had now come in the fullness of time, to claim his r

le would have been upon the ground in a few moments. It was an easy matter for the savage to slay the boy. It would not have done to shoot his rifle, but he could have tomahawked him in an instant; hence it was plain that he desired only to take him prisoner. He might have sprung upon his prey in th

oat, after being robbed of her bell, might go home and tell a tale, or that there were other wa

he did so, he recalled the fact that he had but a single charge, and that, as a consequence, a miss would be the death-warrant of himself as well as of

ctly in range with the Indian himself, and that a bullet passing through the head of the savage could not fail to bury itself in the little fell

uld not be done without too seriously endangering his aim. He drew a bead from one side of the tree, and then from the other, but from both stand-points the same dreadful

y might fall into the Indian's power and be dispatched, as he would be sure to do when he found that the father was close at hand; and from the proximity of the two men, it could hardly fail to pre

s keeping in range all the while. Then the attempted rescue would have to be deferred until the child was in the hands of the savage. These considerations, passing throug

oat, and, as it swayed gently back and forth, this string slowly twisted and untwisted itself, the bell, of c

essary that the reader should bear them in mind in order to understand the manner in which the missionary proposed to accompli

ithout endangering the life of the Indian. If it struck the narrow side, it accomplished neither harm nor good; while, if fired at the precise moment, and still aimed but an inch too low, the bell would most

ve that knew no faltering or fear, holding it pointed until the critical moment should arrive. That moment w

im in his death-struggle upon the ground the bell still held fast in his hand. In that critical moment, Harvey Richter could not forbear glancing at it. Its top was in

look of the dying man

-don't you know

ong that only a fiend could have perpetrated. Gre

inished me, so the

ever since we came in this country? Are you

ed the man, with

nge hunter and the Indian known as M

aunted me thus, and don

zy when I thought about it. I wanted to take her from you, but I wouldn

you done

ok her from me, and went up north with her. They have got her yet, I know, for I have kept w

oes your heart tell you you are at peace wit

, when I was an honest man like yourself, and before I became a

oo late for Go

his hand extended. "I see her-she is coming, her white robes floating on the air. Oh, God, forgive me t

ichter eased the head softly down upo