While thus employed, however, and just at the conclusion of his labors,
there came another personage upon the scene, to whom it is necessary
that we should direct our attention.
It will be remembered that Rivers and Munro, after the murder of
Forrester, had separated--the latter on his return to the village--the
other in a direction which seemed to occasion some little
dissatisfaction in the mind of his companion. After thus separating,
Rivers, to whom the whole country was familiar, taking a shorter route
across the forest, by which the sinuosities of the main road were
generally avoided, entered, after the progress of a few miles, into the
very path pursued by Colleton, and which, had it been chosen by his
pursuers in the first instance, might have entirely changed the result
of the pursuit. In taking this course it was not the thought of the
outlaw to overtake the individual whose blood he so much desired; but,
with an object which will have its development as we continue, he came
to the cottage at the very time when, having succeeded in overcoming the
flames, Ralph was employed in a task almost as difficult--that of
reassuring the affrighted inmates, and soothing them against the
apprehension of farther danger.
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