My inclination was to join her at once, but I knew that the negro would never enter the cabin alone, and now our first necessity was food.

Of this I found a fair supply, and, compelling him to assist me, we hastily prepared a warm meal over the open fire.

It was eaten without, no one of us desiring to remain in the midst of that scene of death; and the very knowledge that the dreaded burial was completed and that we were now free to depart, brought to all of us a renewed courage.
The sun was high in the heavens by this time, the golden light brightening the little clearing and dissipating the gloom of the surrounding forest.

All suspicion that the murderer, or murderers, might still remain in the immediate neighborhood of their crime had entirely deserted my mind.

Where, and by what means, they had fled could not be determined, but I felt assured they were no longer near by, I had sought in vain for any other path than the one we had followed from the mouth of the creek, while the suggestion which Rene had advanced, that the steamer had tied up to the shore, permitting the raiding party to land, grew more and more plausible to my mind.