unt my words," continued the other,
bending on his rude saddle-bow, like some chevalier of a more civilised
race, and speaking in the haughty tones of absolute power; "the
Dahcotahs have not chosen a woman for their chief; when Mahtoree feels
the power of a great medicine, he will tremble; until then he will look
with his own eyes, without borrowing sight from a Pale-face. If your
conjuror is not with his friends in the morning, my young men shall look
for him. Your ears are open. Enough."

The trapper was not sorry to find that so long a respite was granted. He
had before found reason to believe, that the Teton partisan was one of
those bold spirits, who overstep the limits which use and education
fix to the opinions of man, in every state of society, and he now saw
plainly that he must adopt some artifice to deceive him, different
from that which had succeeded so well with his followers. The sudden
appearance of the rock, however, which hove up, a bleak and ragged mass,
out of the darkness ahead, put an end for the present to the discourse,
Mahtoree giving all his thoughts to the execution of his designs on the
rest of the squatter's movables. A murmur ran through the band, as each
dark warrior caught a glimpse of the desired haven, after which the
nicest ear might have listened in vain, to catch a sound louder than the
rustling of feet among the tall grass of the prairie.

But the vigilance of Esther was not easily deceived. She had long
listened anxiously to the suspicious sounds, which approached the rock
across the naked waste, nor had the sudden outcry been unheard by the
unwearied sentinels of the rock. The savages, who had dismounted at some
little distance, had not time to draw around the base of the hill in
their customary silent and insidious manner, before the voice of the
Amazon was raised, demanding--

"Who is beneath? Answer, for your lives! Siouxes or devils, I fear ye
not!"

No answer was given to this challenge, every warrior halting where he
stood, confident that his dusky form was blended with the shadows of the
plain. It was at this moment that the trapper determined to escape. He
had been left with the rest of his friends, under the surveillance of
those who were assigned to the duty of watching the horses, and as they
all continued mounted, the moment appeared favourable to his project.
The attention of the guards was drawn to the rock, and a heavy cloud
driving above them at that instant, ob