Most of their dark forms
were soon blended with the brown covering of the prairie; though the
captives, who watched the slightest movement of their enemies with
vigilant eyes, were now and then enabled to discern a human figure,
drawn against the horizon, as some one, more eager than the rest, rose
to his greatest height in order to extend the limits of his view. But
it was not long before even these fugitive glimpses of the moving, and
constantly increasing circle, were lost, and uncertainty and conjecture
were added to apprehension. In this manner passed many anxious and weary
minutes, during the close of which the listeners expected at each moment
to hear the whoop of the assailants and the shrieks of the assailed,
rising together on the stillness of the night. But it would seem, that
the search which was so evidently making, was without a sufficient
object; for at the expiration of half an hour the different individuals
of the band began to return singly, gloomy and sullen, like men who were
disappointed.

"Our time is at hand," observed the trapper, who noted the smallest
incident, or the slightest indication of hostility among the savages:
"we are now to be questioned; and if I know any thing of the policy of
our case, I should say it would be wise to choose one among us to hold
the discourse, in order that our testimony may agree. And furthermore,
if an opinion from one as old and as worthless as a hunter of fourscore,
is to be regarded, I would just venture to say, that man should be the
one most skilled in the natur' of an Indian, and that he should also
know something of their language.--Are you acquainted with the tongue of
the Siouxes, friend?"

"Swarm your own hive," returned the discontented bee-hunter. "You are
good at buzzing, old trapper, if you are good at nothing else."

"'Tis the gift of youth to be rash and heady," the trapper calmly
retorted. "The day has been, boy, when my blood was like your own, too
swift and too hot to run quietly in my veins. But what will it profit to
talk of silly risks and foolish acts at this time of life! A grey head
should cover a brain of reason, and not the tongue of a boaster."

"True, true," whispered Ellen; "and we have other things to attend to
now! Here comes the Indian to put his questions."

The girl, whose apprehensions had quickened her senses, was not
deceived. She was yet speaking when a tall, half naked savage,
approached the spot where they stood, and