and yells that were, by this time, bursting from fifty
mouths on every side of him. The guards still maintained their posts at
the side of the captives, but it was with that sort of difficulty with
which steeds are restrained at the starting-post, when expecting the
signal to commence the trial of speed. They tossed their arms wildly in
the air, leaping up and down more like exulting children than sober men,
and continued to utter the most frantic cries.

In the midst of this tumultuous disorder a rushing sound was heard,
similar to that which might be expected to precede the passage of a
flight of buffaloes, and then came the flocks and cattle of Ishmael in
one confused and frightened drove.

"They have robbed the squatter of his beasts!" said the attentive
trapper. "The reptiles have left him as hoofless as a beaver!" He was
yet speaking, when the whole body of the terrified animals rose the
little acclivity, and swept by the place where he stood, followed by a
band of dusky and demon-like looking figures, who pressed madly on their
rear.

The impulse was communicated to the Teton horses, long accustomed to
sympathise in the untutored passions of their owners, and it was with
difficulty that the keepers were enabled to restrain their impatience.
At this moment, when all eyes were directed to the passing whirlwind
of men and beasts, the trapper caught the knife from the hands of his
inattentive keeper, with a power that his age would have seemed to
contradict, and, at a single blow, severed the thong of hide which
connected the whole of the drove. The wild animals snorted with joy and
terror, and tearing the earth with their heels, they dashed away into
the broad prairies, in a dozen different directions.

Weucha turned upon his assailant with the ferocity and agility of a
tiger. He felt for the weapon of which he had been so suddenly deprived,
fumbled with impotent haste for the handle of his tomahawk, and at the
same moment glanced his eyes after the flying cattle, with the longings
of a Western Indian. The struggle between thirst for vengeance and
cupidity was severe but short. The latter quickly predominated in the
bosom of one whose passions were proverbially grovelling; and scarcely
a moment intervened between the flight of the animals and the swift
pursuit of the guards. The trapper had continued calmly facing his foe,
during the instant of suspense that succeeded his hardy act; and now
that Weucha was seen