known the young, and the delicate, and the virtuous, and
the modest, to undergo, in my time, among the horrifications and
circumventions of Indian warfare! Come, it is a short quarter of a mile
to the other bank, and then our trail, at least, will be broken."

Paul had by this time assisted Ellen to dismount, and he now stood
looking, with rueful eyes, at the naked banks of the river. Neither tree
nor shrub grew along its borders, with the exception of here and there a
solitary thicket of low bushes, from among which it would not have been
an easy matter to have found a dozen stems of a size sufficient to make
an ordinary walking-stick.

"Harkee, old trapper," the moody-looking bee-hunter exclaimed; "it is
very well to talk of the other side of this ripple of a river, or brook,
or whatever you may call it, but in my judgment it would be a smart
rifle that would throw its lead across it--that is, to any detriment to
Indian, or deer."

"That it would--that it would; though I carry a piece, here, that has
done its work in time of need, at as great a distance."

"And do you mean to shoot Ellen and the captain's lady across; or do you
intend them to go, trout fashion, with their mouths under water?"

"Is this river too deep to be forded?" asked Middleton, who, like Paul,
began to consider the impossibility of transporting her, whose safety he
valued more than his own, to the opposite shore.

"When the mountains above feed it with their torrents, it is, as you
see, a swift and powerful stream. Yet have I crossed its sandy bed, in
my time, without wetting a knee. But we have the Sioux horses; I warrant
me, that the kicking imps will swim like so many deer."

"Old trapper," said Paul, thrusting his fingers into his mop of a head,
as was usual with him, when any difficulty confounded his philosophy,
"I have swam like a fish in my day, and I can do it again, when there is
need; nor do I much regard the weather; but I question if you get Nelly
to sit a horse, with this water whirling like a mill-race before her
eyes; besides, it is manifest the thing is not to be done dry shod."

"Ah, the lad is right. We must to our inventions, therefore, or the
river cannot be crossed." Then, cutting the discourse short, he turned
to the Pawnee, and explained to him the difficulty which existed in
relation to the women. The young warrior listened gravely, and throwing
the buffaloe-skin from his shoulder he immediately commenced, assisted