r full belief. Among these last were
the renegade and one or two savages of a more sagacious or sceptical turn
than their fellows, who beset the supposed conjuror with questions
calculated to pluck out the heart of his mystery.

But questions and curiosity were in vain. The conjuror was possessed by a
silent devil; and whether it was that the shock of his last paroxysm had
left his mind benumbed and stupefied, whether his courage had failed at
last, leaving him plunged in despair, or whether, indeed, his frigid
indifference was not altogether assumed to serve a peculiar purpose, it
was nevertheless certain that he bestowed not the slightest attention
upon any of his questioners, not even upon Doe, who had previously
endeavoured to unravel the riddle by seeking the assistance of Ralph
Stackpole,--assistance, however, which Ralph, waxing sagacious of a
sudden, professed himself wholly unable to give. This faithful fellow,
indeed, professed to be just as ignorant of the person and character of
the young Virginian; swearing, with a magnanimous resolve, to assume
the pains and penalties of Indian ire on his own shoulders, that "the
hoss-stealing" (which, he doubted not, would be held the most
unpardonable feature in the adventure,) "was jist a bit of a private
speculation of his own,--that there was nobody with him,--that he had
come on his expedition alone, and knew no more of the other fellers than
he did of the 'tarnal tempers of Injun hosses,--not he!" In short, the
skeptics were baffled, and the superstitious were left to the enjoyment
of their wonder and awe.

At nightfall, Nathan was removed to Wenonga's cabin, where the chief,
surrounded by a dozen or more warriors, made him a speech in such English
phrases as he had acquired, informing the prisoner, as before, that "he,
Wenonga, was a great chief and warrior, that the other, the prisoner, was
a great medicine-man; and, finally, that he, Wenonga, required of his
prisoner, the medicine-man, by his charms, to produce the Jibbenainosay,
the unearthly slayer of his people and curse of his tribe, in order that
he, the great chief, who feared neither warrior nor devil, might fight
him, like a man, and kill him, so that he, the aforesaid destroyer,
should destroy his young men in the dark no longer."

Not even to this speech, though received by the warriors with marks of
great approbation, did Nathan vouchsafe the least notice; and the savages
despairing of moving him to