His little, yellow eyes glinted; he
stroked his chin with a bony hand, and his dark, repulsive face was
wreathed in a terrible, meaning smile.
"I've been layin' fer you," he croaked, eyeing Nell. "Ye're the
purtiest lass, 'ceptin' mebbe Bet Zane, I ever seed on the border. I
got cheated outen her, but I've got you; arter I feed yer Injun
preacher to ther buzzards mebbe ye'll larn to love me."
Nell gazed one instant into the monster's face. Her terror-stricken
eyes were piteous to behold. She tried to speak; but her voice
failed. Then, like stricken bird, she fell on the grass.
Chapter XIV.
Not many miles from the Village of Peace rose an irregular chain of
hills, the first faint indications of the grand Appalachian Mountain
system. These ridges were thickly wooded with white oak, poplar and
hickory, among which a sentinel pine reared here and there its
evergreen head. There were clefts in the hills, passes lined by
gray-stoned cliffs, below which ran clear brooks, tumbling over
rocks in a hurry to meet their majestic father, the Ohio.
One of these valleys, so narrow that the sun seldom brightened the
merry brook, made a deep cut in the rocks. The head of this valley
tapered until the walls nearly met; it seemed to lose itself in the
shade of fern-faced cliffs, shadowed as they were by fir trees
leaning over the brink, as though to search for secrets of the
ravine.
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