onward.

The spectators regarded the simple expedient of the trapper with that
species of wonder, with which the courtiers of Ferdinand are said to
have viewed the manner in which Columbus made his egg stand on its end,
though with feelings that were filled with gratitude instead of envy.

"Most wonderful!" said Middleton, when he saw the complete success
of the means by which they had been rescued from a danger that he had
conceived to be unavoidable. "The thought was a gift from Heaven, and
the hand that executed it should be immortal!"

"Old trapper," cried Paul, thrusting his fingers through his shaggy
locks, "I have lined many a loaded bee into his hole, and know something
of the nature of the woods, but this is robbing a hornet of his sting
without touching the insect!"

"It will do--it will do," returned the old man, who after the first
moment of his success seemed to think no more of the exploit; "now get
the horses in readiness. Let the flames do their work for a short half
hour, and then we will mount. That time is needed to cool the meadow,
for these unshod Teton beasts are as tender on the hoof as a barefooted
girl."

Middleton and Paul, who considered this unlooked-for escape as a species
of resurrection, patiently awaited the time the trapper mentioned with
renewed confidence in the infallibility of his judgment. The Doctor
regained his tablets, a little the worse from having fallen among
the grass which had been subject to the action of the flames, and
was consoling himself for this slight misfortune by recording
uninterruptedly such different vacillations in light and shadow as he
chose to consider phenomena.

In the mean time the veteran, on whose experience they all so implicitly
relied for protection, employed himself in reconnoitring objects in the
distance, through the openings which the air occasionally made in the
immense bodies of smoke, that by this time lay in enormous piles on
every part of the plain.

"Look you here, lads," the trapper said, after a long and anxious
examination, "your eyes are young and may prove better than my worthless
sight--though the time has been, when a wise and brave people saw reason
to think me quick on a look-out; but those times are gone, and many a
true and tried friend has passed away with them. Ah's me! if I could
choose a change in the orderings of Providence--which I cannot, and
which it would be blasphemy to attempt, seeing that all things are
gover