CHAPTER XXII.
THE BLOODY DEED.
Let us leave the outlaws to their progress for a brief space, while we gather up and pursue for awhile some other clues of our story.
We have witnessed the separation of Mark Forrester from his sweetheart, at the place of trysting.

The poor fellow had recovered some of his confidence in himself and fortune, and was now prepared to go forth with a new sentiment of hope within his bosom.

The sting was in a degree taken from his conscience--his elastic and sanguine temperament contributed to this--and with renewed impulses to adventure, and with new anticipations of the happiness that we all dream to find in life; the erring, but really honest fellow, rode fearlessly through the dim forests, without needing more auspicious lights than those of the kindling moon and stars.

The favor of old Allen, the continued love of Kate, the encouragements of young Colleton, his own feeling of the absence of any malice in his heart, even while committing his crime, and the farther fact that he was well-mounted, and speeding from the region where punishment threatened--all these were influences which conspired to lessen, in his mind, the griefs of his present privation, and the lonely emotions which naturally promised to accompany him in his solitary progress.
His course lay for the great Southwest--the unopened forests, and mighty waters of the Mississippi valley.

Here, he was to begin a new life.
Unknown, he would shake off the fears which his crime necessarily inspired.