CHAPTER XVIII.

At about the same time that Henry Billings, under the protection of his Indian friends, set out on his last expedition up the river, a single canoe with four persons in it, put out from under the shadow of Old Crow Nest, on its way down the stream.

The individual by whom the canoe was directed was an Indian, a man somewhat advanced in years. The others were a white girl, an Indian woman, and a negro boy.

In short, the party consisted of Fire Cloud, Hellena Rosenthrall, Lightfoot, and Black Bill, on their way to the city.

They had passed the fleet of canoes in which Billings had embarked, but not knowing whether it belonged to a party of friendly Indians or otherwise.

Fire Cloud had avoided coming in contact with it for fear of being delayed, or of the party being made prisoners and carried back again.

Could they have but met, what a world of trouble would it not have saved to all parties interested!

As it was, Hellena arrived in safety, greatly to the delight of her father and friends, who had long mourned for her as for one they never expected to see again in this world.

The sum of Hellena's happiness would now have been complete, had it not been for the dark shadow cast over it by the absence of her lover.

And this shadow grew darker, and darker, as weeks, and months, rolled by without bringing any tidings of the missing one.

What might have been the effects of the melancholy into which she was fast sinking, it is hard to tell, had not the unexpected return of the one for whose loss she was grieving, restored her once more to her wonted health and spirits.

And here we might lay down our pen, and call our story finished, did we not think that justice to the reader, required that we should explain some things connected with the mysterious, cavern not yet accounted for.

How the Indian entered the cave on the night when Hellena fancied she had seen a ghost, and how she made her escape, has been explained, but we have not yet explained how the noises were produced which so alarmed the pirates.

It will be remembered that the sleeping place of Black Bill was a recess in the wall of the cavern.

Now in the wall, near the head of the negro's bed, there was a deep fissure or crevice. It happened that Bill while lying awake one night, to amuse himself, put his month to the crevice and spoke some words, when to his astonishment, what he had said, was repeated over and over, again.

Black Bill in his ignorance and simplicity, supposed that the echo, which came back, was an answer from some one on the other side of the wall.

Having made this discovery, he repeated the experiment a number of times, and always with the same result.

After awhile, he began to ask questions of the spirit, as he supposed it to be, that had spoken to him.

Among other things he asked if the devil was coming after master.

The echo replied, "The debil comin' after master," and repeated it a great many times.

Bill now became convinced that it was the devil himself that he had been talking to.

On the night when the pirates were so frightened by the fearful groan, Bill was lying awake, listening to the captain's story. When he came to the part where he describes the throwing the boy's father overboard, and speaks of the horrible groan, Bill put his mouth to the crevice, and imitated the groan, which had been too deeply fixed in his memory ever to be forgotten, giving full scope to his voice.

The effect astonished and frightened him as well as the pirates.

With the same success he imitated the Indian war-whoop, which he had learned while among the savages.

The next time that the pirates were so terribly frightened, the alarm was caused by Fire Cloud after his visit to the cave on the occasion that he had been taken for the devil by Bill, and an Indian ghost by Hellena.

Fire Cloud had remained in another chamber of the cavern connected with the secret passage already described, and where the echo was even more wonderful than the one pronounced from the opening through which the negro had spoken.

Here he could hear all that was passing in the great chamber occupied by the pirates, and from this chamber the echoes were to those who did not understand their cause, perfectly frightful.

All these peculiarities of the cavern had been known to the ancient Indian priests or medicine men, and by them made use of to impose on their ignorant followers.

BEADLE'S FRONTIER SERIES

1. The Shawnee's Foe. 2. The Young Mountaineer. 3. Wild Jim. 4. Hawk-Eye, the Hunter. 5. The Boy Guide. 6. War Tiger of the Modocs. 7. The Red Modocs. 8. Iron Hand. 9. Shadow Bill, the Scout. 10. Wapawkaneta, or the Rangers of the Oneida. 11. Davy Crockett's Boy Hunter. 12. The Forest Avenger. 13. Old Jack's Frontier Cabin. 14. On the Deep. 15. Sharp Snout. 16. The Mountain Demon. 17. Wild Tom of Wyoming. 18. The Brave Boy Hunters of Kentucky. 19. The Fearless Ranger. 20. The Haunted Trapper. 21. Madman of the Colorado. 22. The Panther Demon. 23. Slashaway, the Fearless. 24. Pine Tree Jack. 25. Indian Jim. 26. Navajo Nick. 27. The Tuscarora's Vow. 28. Deadwood Dick, Jr. 29. A New York Boy Among the Indians. 30. Deadwood Dick's Big Deal. 31. Hank, the Guide. 32. Deadwood Dick's Dozen. 33. Squatty Dick. 34. The Hunter's Secret. 35. The Woman Trapper. 36. The Chief of the Miami. 37. Gunpowder Jim. 38. Mad Anthony's Captain. 39. The Ranger Boy's Career. 40. Old Nick of the Swamp. 41. The Shadow Scout. 42. Lantern-Jawed Bob. 43. The Masked Hunter. 44. Brimstone Jake. 45. The Irish Hunter. 46. Dave Bunker. 47. The Shawnee Witch. 48. Big Brave. 49. Spider-Legs. 50. Harry Hardskull. 51. Madman of the Ocont. 52. Slim Jim. 53. Tiger-Eye. 54. The Red Star of the Seminoles. 55. Trapper Joe. 56. The Indian Queen's Revenge. 57. Eagle-Eyed Zeke. 58. Scar-Cheek, the Wild Half-Breed. 59. Red Men of the Woods. 60. Tuscaloosa Sam. 61. The Bully of the Woods. 62. The Trapper's Bride. 63. Red Rattlesnake, The Pawnee. 64. The Scout of Tippecanoe. 65. Old Kit, The Scout. 66. The Boy Scouts. 67. Hiding Tom. 68. Roving Dick, Hunter. 69. Hickory Jack. 70. Mad Mike. 71. Snake-Eye. 72. Big-Hearted Joe. 73. The Blazing Arrow. 74. The Hunter Scouts. 75. The Scout of Long Island. 76. Turkey-Foot. 77. The Death Rangers. 78. Bullet Head. 79. The Indian Spirit. 80. The Twin Trappers. 81. Lightfoot the Scout. 82. Grim Dick. 83. The Wooden-Legged Spy. 84. The Silent Trapper. 85. Ugly Ike. 86. Fire Cloud. 87. Hank Jasper. 88. The Scout of the Sciota. 89. Black Samson. 90. Billy Bowlegs. 91. The Bloody Footprint. 92. Marksman the Hunter. 93. The Demon Cruiser. 94. Hunters and Redskins. 95. Panther Jack. 96. Old Zeke. 97. The Panther Paleface. 98. The Scout of the St. Lawrence. 99. Bloody Brook. 100. Long Bob of Kentucky.

THE ARTHUR WESTBROOK CO. Cleveland, U.S.A.