quare had burned so low as no longer to send even a ray to the hut of
Wenonga, and the wind, though subsiding, still kept up a sufficient din
to drown the ordinary sound of footsteps. Under such favourable
circumstances, Nathan (for, as may be supposed, it was this faithful
friend who had snatched the forlorn Edith from the grasp of the betrayer)
stalked boldly from the hut, bearing the rescued maiden in his arms, and
little doubting that, having thus so successfully accomplished the first
and greatest step in the enterprise, he could now conclude it in safety,
if not with ease.

But there were perils yet to be encountered, which the man of peace had
not taken into anticipation, and which, indeed, would not have existed,
had his foreboding doubts of the propriety of admitting either of his
associates, and honest Stackpole especially, to a share of the exploit,
been suffered to influence his counsels to the exclusion of that worthy
but unlucky personage altogether. He had scarce stepped from the
tent-door before there arose on the sudden, and at no great distance from
the square over which he was hurrying his precious burden, a horrible
din,--a stamping, snorting, galloping and neighing of horses, as if a
dozen famished bears or wolves had suddenly made their way into the
Indian pinfold, carrying death and distraction into the whole herd. And
this alarming omen was almost instantly followed by an increase of all
the uproar, as if the animals had broken loose from the pound, and were
rushing, mad with terror, towards the centre of the village.

At the first outbreak of the tumult, Nathan had dropped immediately into
the bushes before the wigwam; but perceiving that the sounds increased,
and were actually drawing nigh, and that the sleepers were waking on the
square, he sprang again to his feet, and, flinging his blanket around
Edith, who was yet incapable of aiding herself, resolved to make a bold
effort to escape, while darkness and the confusion of the enemy
permitted. There was, in truth, not a moment to be lost. The slumbers of
the barbarians, proverbially light at all times, and readily broken even
when the stupor of intoxication has steeped their faculties, were not
proof against sounds at once so unusual and so uproarious. A sudden yell
of surprise, bursting from one point, was echoed by another, and another
voice; and, in a moment, the square resounded with these signals of
alarm, added to the wilder screams which