"Captain Williamson could have prevented the massacre," remarked Jim.
"Possibly. It was a bad place for him, and I think he was wrong not to try," declared the colonel.
"Hullo!" cried Jonathan Zane, getting up from the steps where he sat listening to the conversation.
A familiar soft-moccasined footfall sounded on the path. All turned to see Wetzel come slowly toward them. His buckskin hunting costume was ragged and worn. He looked tired and weary, but the dark eyes were calm.
It was the Wetzel whom they all loved.
They greeted him warmly. Nell gave him her hands, and smiled up at him.
"I'm so glad you've come home safe," she said.
"Safe an' sound, lass, an' glad to find you well," answered the hunter, as he leaned on his long rifle, looking from Nell to Colonel Zane's sister. "Betty, I allus gave you first place among border lasses, but here's one as could run you most any kind of a race," he said, with the rare smile which so warmly lighted his dark, stern face.
"Lew Wetzel ****** compliments! Well, of all things!" exclaimed the colonel's sister.
Jonathan Zane stood closely scanning Wetzel's features. Colonel Zane, observing his brother's close scrutiny of the hunter, guessed the cause, and said:
"Lew, tell us, did you see Wingenund over the sights of your rifle?"
"Yes," answered the hunter simply.
A chill seemed to strike the hearts of the listeners. That ****** answer, coming from Wetzel, meant so much. Nell bowed her head sadly. Jim turned away biting his lip. Christy looked across the valley. Colonel Zane bent over and picked up some pebbles which he threw hard at the cabin wall. Jonathan Zane abruptly left the group, and went into the house.
But the colonel's sister fixed her large, black eyes on Wetzel's face.
"Well?" she asked, and her voice rang.
Wetzel was silent for a moment. He met here eyes with that old, inscrutable smile in his own. A slight shade flitted across his face.
"Betty, I missed him," he said, calmly, and, shouldering his long rifle, he strode away.
Nell and Jim walked along the bluff above the river. Twilight was deepening.
The red glow in the west was slowly darkening behind the boldly defined hills.
"So it's all settled, Jim, that we stay here," said Nell.
"Yes, dear. Colonel Zane has offered me work, and a church besides. We are very fortunate, and should be contented. I am happy because you're my wife, and yet I am sad when I think of--him. Poor Joe!"
"Don't you ever think we--we wronged him?" whispered Nell.
"No, he wished it. I think he knew how he would end. No, we did not wrong him; we loved him."
"Yes, I loved him--I loved you both," said Nell softly.
"Then let us always think of him as he would have wished."
"Think of him? Think of Joe? I shall never forget. In winter, spring and summer I shall remember him, but always most in autumn. For I shall see that beautiful glade with its gorgeous color and the dark, shaded spring where he lies asleep."
The years rolled by with their changing seasons; every autumn the golden flowers bloomed richly, and the colored leaves fell softly upon the amber moss in the glade of Beautiful Spring.
The Indians camped there no more; they shunned the glade and called it the Haunted Spring. They said the spirit of a white dog ran there at night, and the Wind-of-Death mourned over the lonely spot.
At long intervals an Indian chief of lofty frame and dark, powerful face stalked into the glade to stand for many moments silent and motionless.
And sometimes at twilight when the red glow of the sun had faded to gray, a stalwart hunter slipped like a shadow out of the thicket, and leaned upon a long, black rifle while he gazed sadly into the dark spring, and listened to the sad murmur of the waterfall. The twilight deepened while he stood motionless. The leaves fell into the water with a soft splash, a whippoorwill caroled his melancholy song.
From the gloom of the forest came a low sigh which swelled thrillingly upon the quiet air, and then died away like the wailing of the night wind.
Quiet reigned once more over the dark, murky grave of the boy who gave his love and his life to the wilderness.
