By this time the Colonel and Jonathan were standing in the shallow water waiting to grasp the reins and lead the horses up the steep bank.  Attracted by the unusual sight of a wildly gesticulating group on the river bluff, the settlers from the Fort hurried down to the scene of action.  Capt.  Boggs and Alfred Clarke joined the crowd.  Old Sam came running down from the barn.  All were intensely excited and Col.  Zane and Jonathan reached for the bridles and led the horses up the slippery incline.

“Eb, Jack, Silas, here I am alive and well,” cried Isaac as he leaped from his horse.  “Betty, you darling, it’s Isaac.  Don’t stand staring as if I were a ghost.”

Whereupon Betty ran to him, flung her arms around his neck and clung to him.  Isaac kissed her tenderly and disengaged himself from her arms.

“You’ll get all wet.  Glad to see me?  Well, I never had such a happy moment in my life.  Betty, I have brought you home one whom you must love.  This is Myeerah, your sister.  She is wet and cold.  Take her home and make her warm and comfortable.  You must forget all the past, for Myeerah has saved me from the stake.”

Betty had forgotten the other.  At her brother’s words she turned and saw a slender form.  Even the wet, mud-stained and ragged Indian costume failed to hide the grace of that figure.  She saw a beautiful face, as white as her own, and dark eyes full of unshed tears.

“The Eagle is free,” said the Indian girl in her low, musical voice.

“You have brought him home to us.  Come,” said Betty taking the hand of the trembling maiden.

The settlers crowded round Isaac and greeted him warmly while they plied him with innumerable questions.  Was he free?  Who was the Indian girl?  Had he run off with her?  Were the Indians preparing for war?

On the way to the Colonel’s house Isaac told briefly of his escape from the Wyandots, of his capture by Cornplanter, and of his rescue.  He also mentioned the preparations for war he had seen in Cornplanter’s camp, and Girty’s story of Col.  Crawford’s death.

“How does it come that you have the Indian girl with you?” asked Col.  Zane as they left the curious settlers and entered the house.

“I am going to marry Myeerah and I brought her with me for that purpose.  When we are married I will go back to the Wyandots and live with them until peace is declared.”

“Humph!  Will it be declared?”

“Myeerah has promised it, and I believe she can bring it about, especially if I marry her.  Peace with the Hurons may help to bring about peace with the Shawnees.  I shall never cease to work for that end; but even if peace cannot be secured, my duty still is to Myeerah.  She saved me from a most horrible death.”

“If your marriage with this Indian girl will secure the friendly offices of that grim old warrior Tarhe, it is far more than fighting will ever do.  I do not want you to go back.  Would we ever see you again?”