"
Corinne's eyes were bright with eager interest.
Ah, Colin! is that truly so? And how came that about? You
travelling with an English Ranger!"
"Yes, truly, and we owe our lives to his valour and protection. It
is strange how Dame Fortune has thrown us across each other's path
times and again during these past few short years. First, he saved
us from attack in the forest. You need not that I should tell you
more of that, Corinne. Afterwards, some few of us from Ticonderoga
saved the lives of him and of a few other Rangers who had fallen
into the hands of the Indians after that defeat at Fort William
Henry, which had scattered them far and wide. We felt such shame at
the way our Indian allies had behaved, and at the little protection
given to the prisoners of war by our Canadian troops, that we were
glad to show kindness and hospitality to the wanderers, Rangers
though they were; and when I recognized Fritz, I was the more glad.
He was wounded and ill, and we nursed him to health ere we sent him
away. After that it was long before we met again, and then he came
to our succour when we were in the same peril from Indians as he
had been himself the year before."
"From Indians? O brother!" and Corinne shuddered, for she had that
horror of the red-skinned race which comes to those who have seen
and heard of their cruelties and treachery from those who have
dwelt amongst them.
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