"Die, now, like a dog! and be out of my way!"
But the words were scarcely uttered, when his uplifted hand relaxed its grasp of the deadly weapon, and at the same precise point of time, a flash and report told that a third party had taken part in the deadly conflict.
Bill fell over upon his dead companion a corpse, and springing to his feet, Hadley stood face to face with Eveline! Each spoke the other"s name, fell into the other"s arms, and Eveline fainted away! At this juncture d.i.c.k made his appearance, and taking in the whole scene at a glance, hastened out and soon returned with a vessel of water. Hadley took a handful of the fluid and sprinkled Eveline"s face, who soon revived.
We shall not attempt to describe the joy of the transported lovers. But the family had been aroused by the unusual noise, and soon the wife and her two daughters stood with the dead. In their horror and distress, Hadley and Eveline forgot their happiness.
There was no more sleep for the inmates of that lonely dwelling that night, and with the early dawn, the lovers, guided by d.i.c.k to a public road, left the scene of death and wretchedness for home, where they arrived in safety, the next evening, to the unspeakable joy of Mr. Mandeville, who had just returned from a fruitless search after his daughter, in despair.
d.i.c.k went back and buried his dead companion, and old Sampson, after doing which he left the country, and was never afterward heard of.
The League was never revived in that section of the country after the destruction of the cave, though many of the members went to the south-west to join their captain, and the Order is still in existence in a little different form.
We have little more to add. Charles and Eveline were married with the full and free approbation of Mr. Mandeville, who ever after loved Hadley as his own child, and acknowledged that for once the daughter"s was better than the FATHER"S CHOICE, and often shuddered as he contemplated how narrowly his beloved daughter had escaped becoming the wife, first, and afterward, the victim, of THE HORSE THIEF RIVAL.