But there was no alternative.

Commending her to the care of their heavenly Father, and cheered by the manifest tenderness with which she had thus far been treated, they set out on their melancholy journey homeward, trusting that some future effort would be more effectual for the recovery of their little girl.
Having placed his family in safety at Pittsburg, Mr.Lytle, still assisted by the commandant and the Indian Agent, undertook an expedition to the frontier to the residence of the British Agent, Colonel Johnson.
His representation of the case warmly interested the feelings of that benevolent officer, who promised him to spare no exertions in his behalf.

This promise he religiously performed.

He went in person to the village of the Big White Man, as soon as the opening of the spring permitted, and offered him many splendid presents of guns and horses, but the chief was inexorable.
Time rolled on, and every year the hope of recovering the little captive became more faint.

She, in the mean time, continued to wind herself more and more closely around the heart of her Indian brother.