But  as  she  uttered  her  wishes  of  joy,  at  the  very  moment  that
she  clasped  the  hand  of  the  bride,  she  suddenly  shook  with  an
awful  tremor,  and  turned  pale  as  her  own  stainless  robes  ;  for
she  saw  a  couple  of  demoniac  eyes  gleaming  before  her  in  the


THE  LAST.  391

border  of  the  green  bushes,  and  the  horrible  hand  of  Comanche
Ben,  beckoning  her  towards  him  !

She  endeavored  to  approach  him,  fearing  that  he  would
become  maddened,  and  proclaim  their  frightful  secret  to  the
assembled  spectators  ;  but  if  her  very  life,  if  the  salvation  of  her
soul  had  depended  on  the  deed,  she  could  not  have  moved  a  mus
cle,  such  a  strange  terror  had  possessed  her  bodily.  Her  heart
seemed  changed  to  ice,  while  the  weight  of  an  avalanche  lay
upon  her  half-frenzied  brain.
The  Indian,  scowling  like  a  devil,  advanced  to  within  three
feet  of  the  horrified  woman,  and  said,  in  a  voice  calm  as  the  air
before  the  first  clap  of  a  thunder-storm  :

"  Lucy,  I  have  come  to  claim  my  reward.  Here  is  the  priest ;
will  you  now  be  my  wife  ?7'

"  No,"  gasped  the  miserable  girl,  with  features  white  and  rigid
as  those  of  a  marble  statue.
"When  shall  we  be  wedded?"  he  hissed,  like  a  furious  serpent.
"  Never  !"  she  cried,  in  appalling  tones.
"  Never  ?"  he  echoed,  with  an  accent  that- startled  the  woods
like  the  wild  howl  of  a  wolf.
