his heel, and shaking his fist in the
direction whence he had come, as if against the enemy who had caused his
benefactress so much distress, he pronounced a formal and emphatic curse
upon their whole race, "from the head-chief to the commoner, from the
whisky-soaking warrior down to the pan-licking squall-a-baby," all of
whom he anathematised with as much originality as fervour of expression;
after which, he proceeded, with more sedateness, to resume his post at
the head of the travellers, and conduct them onwards on their way.

Another hour was now consumed in diving amid cane-brakes and swamps, to
which Roaring Ralph evinced a decidedly greater partiality than to the
open forest, in which the travellers had found themselves at the dawn;
and in this he seemed to show somewhat more of judgment and discretion
than would have been argued from his hair-brained conversation; for the
danger of stumbling upon scouting Indians, of which the country now
seemed so full, was manifestly greater in the open woods than in the dark
and almost unfrequented cane-brakes: and the worthy horse-thief, with all
his apparent love of fight, was not at all anxious that the angel of his
worship should be alarmed or endangered, while entrusted to his zealous
safe-keeping.

But it happened in this case, as it has happened with better and wiser
men, that Stackpole's cunning over-reached itself, as was fully shown in
the event; and it would have been happier for himself and all if his
discretion, instead of plunging him among difficult and almost impassable
bogs, where a precious hour was wasted in effecting a mere temporary
security and concealment from observation, had taught him the necessity
of pushing onwards with all possible speed, so as to leave pursuers, if
pursuit should be attempted, far behind. At the expiration of that hour,
so injudiciously wasted, the fugitives issued from the brake, and
stepping into a narrow path worn by the feet of bisons, among stunted
shrubs and parched grasses, along the face of a lime-stone bed, sparingly
scattered over with a similar barren growth, began to wind their way
downward into a hollow vale, in which they could hear the murmurs, and
perceive the glimmering waters of the river over which they seemed never
destined to pass.

"_Thar_', 'tarnal death to me!" roared Ralph, pointing downwards with
triumph, "arn't that old Salt now, looking as sweet and liquorish as a
whole trough-full of sugar-tree? We