re a rushing blast of wind swept
by the spot where they stood, raising the dust in little eddies, in its
progress; and then, as if guided by a master hand, it quitted the
earth, and mounted to the precise spot on which all eyes were just
then riveted. The loosened linen felt its influence and tottered; but
regained its poise, and, for a moment, it became tranquil. The cloud of
leaves next played in circling revolutions around the place, and then
descended with the velocity of a swooping hawk, and sailed away into
the prairie in long straight lines, like a flight of swallows resting
on their expanded wings. They were followed for some distance by the
snow-white tent, which, however, soon fell behind the rock, leaving
its highest peak as naked as when it lay in the entire solitude of the
desert.

"The murderers have been here!" moaned Esther. "My babes! my babes!"

For a moment even Ishmael faltered before the weight of so unexpected a
blow. But shaking himself, like an awakened lion, he sprang forward,
and pushing aside the impediments of the barrier, as if they had been
feathers, he rushed up the ascent with an impetuosity which proved how
formidable a sluggish nature may become, when thoroughly aroused.

CHAPTER XIV

Whose party do the townsmen yet admit?
--King John.

In order to preserve an even pace between the incidents of the tale, it
becomes necessary to revert to such events as occurred during the ward
of Ellen Wade.

For the few first hours, the cares of the honest and warm-hearted girl
were confined to the simple offices of satisfying the often-repeated
demands which her younger associates made on her time and patience,
under the pretences of hunger, thirst, and all the other ceaseless wants
of captious and inconsiderate childhood. She had seized a moment from
their importunities to steal into the tent, where she was administering
to the comforts of one far more deserving of her tenderness, when an
outcry among the children recalled her to the duties she had momentarily
forgotten.

"See, Nelly, see!" exclaimed half a dozen eager voices; "yonder ar' men;
and Phoebe says that they ar' Sioux-Indians!"

Ellen turned her eyes in the direction in which so many arms were
already extended, and, to her consternation, beheld several men,
advancing manifestly and swiftly in a straight line towards the rock.
She counted four, but was unabl