their purpose at that period, but hoping
perhaps to find him in a more reasonable mood at another moment, left
him--but not until they had again inspected the thongs and satisfied
themselves they were tied in knots strong and intricate enough to
hold even a conjuror. They, also, before leaving him to himself, placed
food and water at his side, and in a way that was perhaps designed to
show their opinion of his wondrous powers; for as his arms were pinioned
tightly behind his back, it was evident he could feed himself only by
magic.

The stolid indifference to all sublunary matters which had distinguished
Nathan throughout the scene, vanished the moment he found himself alone.
In fact, the step of the savage the last to depart was yet rustling among
the weeds at the Black-Vulture's door, when, making a violent effort, he
succeeded in placing himself in a sitting posture, and glared with eager
look around the apartment, which was, as before, dimly lighted by a fire
on the floor. The piles of skins and domestic utensils were hanging
about, as on the preceding night; and indeed, nothing seemed to have been
disturbed, except the weapons, of which there had been so many when
Edith occupied the den, but of which not a single one now remained. Over
the fire,--the long tresses that depended from it swinging and fluttering
in the currents of smoke and heated air,--was the bundle of scalps, to
which Braxley had so insidiously directed the gaze of Edith, and which
was now one of the first objects that met Nathan's eyes.

Having reconnoitered every corner and cranny, and convinced himself that
there was no lurking savage watching his movements, he began straightway
to test the strength of the thong by which his arms were bound; but
without making the slightest impression on it. The cord was strong, the
knots were securely tied; and after five or six minutes of struggling in
which he made the most prodigious efforts to tear it asunder, without
hesitating at the anguish it caused him, he was obliged to give over his
hopes, fain could he have, like Thomson's demon in the net of the good
Knight, enjoyed that consolation of despair,--to

"Sit him felly down, and gnaw his bitter nail."

He summoned his strength, and renewed his efforts again and again, but
always without effect; and being at last persuaded of his inability to
aid himself, and leaned back against a bundle of skins, to counsel with
his own thoughts what hope, if any, yet