be capable,
but which seems to be a part of the nature of an Indian. Whenever
Ohquamehud left the cabin Quadaquina sought no more to avoid him, but
accompanied him whenever invited, and if not, generally followed, so
as not to lose him long out of sight. There was something about the
trust that agreed well with the cunning of the child. It had for him a
kind of fascination, like that which induces the hunter patiently, day
after day, to pursue the track of the flying game, looking forward to
the moment of success, when all his toil is to be repaid.

As for Esther, she lost no time in starting off to apprise Holden and
Pownal of the danger she feared. As the canoe glided along under the
strokes of the paddle, which she knew how to use as well as any
man, she reflected upon the proper manner of communicating her
apprehensions; but the more she thought on the subject, the more
difficult it appeared. She could not mention the name of her kinsman
as the person whom she suspected of an evil design. That seemed to her
a sort of treason, a violation of the rights of relationship and of
hospitality. He might be innocent. She herself might be to blame for
cherishing such suspicions. She knew not what evils the disclosure of
Ohquamehud's name connected with the charge might occasion. He might
be arrested and put in prison, perhaps, executed. The white people,
in the opinion of the Indians, had never exercised much forbearance
towards them, and regarded them as an inferior race. The liberty or
life of an Indian was, probably, with them, but of little consequence.
Besides, might she not be running some risk herself? But this
reflection weighed but little with the affectionate creature. While
such considerations occurred to the ignorant and timid woman, she
was half tempted to turn back, and trust to the Manito or protecting
genius, who had thus far borne the Solitary triumphantly through all
perils, but her fears at last prevailed over these scruples, and she
resolved to give the warning without making allusion to any person.

But Holden, a man naturally of great courage, and familiarized from
his earliest years with danger, and the means of avoiding it, paid but
little attention to the obscure hints of Esther. He did not even take
the trouble to inquire to what direction her allusions pointed.
From whom, from what, had he to apprehend danger to his life? He had
voluntarily embraced poverty; there was nothing about him to tempt
c