When the light was breaking in at the east and dawn near at hand he heard the rough voices of men and the tramping of iron-shod hoofs.

The hour of his departure was at hand.
He sat down at his table and by the aid of the dim light from a pine knot he wrote a hurried letter to Betty.

A little hope revived in his heart as he thought that perhaps all might yet be well.

Surely some one would be up to whom he could intrust the letter, and if no one he would run over and slip it under the door of Colonel Zane's house.
In the gray of the early morning Alfred rode out with the daring band of heavily armed men, all grim and stern, each silent with the thought of the man who knows he may never return.

Soon the settlement was left far behind..