ss of the peril into a degree of active
partisanship which, at the beginning, a proper prudence had well
counselled him to avoid, he put spurs to his steed, and rushing forward
to the foot of the hill, shouted out to the advancing party the nature
of the danger which awaited them. He shouted strenuously, but in
vain--and with a feeling almost amounting to agony, he beheld the little
troop resolutely advance beneath the ponderous rock, which, held in its
place by the slightest purchase, needed but the most moderate effort to
upheave and unfix it for ever.

It was fortunate for the youth that the situation in which he stood was
concealed entirely from the view of those in the encampment. It had been
no object with him to place himself in safety, for the consideration of
his own chance of exposure had never been looked to in his mind, when,
under the noble impulse of humanity, he had rushed forward, if possible,
to recall the little party, who either did not or were unwilling to hear
his voice of warning and prevention. Had he been beheld, there would
have been few of the squatters unable, and still fewer unwilling, to
pick him off with their rifles; and, as the event will show, the good
Providence alone which had hitherto kept with him, rather than the
forbearance of his quondam acquaintance, continued to preserve his life.

Apprized of the ascent of the pass, and not disposed to permit of the
escape of those whom the defenders of it above might spare, unobserved
by his assailants in front, Dexter, with a small detachment, sallying
through a loophole of his fortress, took an oblique course toward the
foot of the gorge, by which to arrest the flight of the fugitives. This
course brought him directly upon, and in contact with, Ralph, who stood
immediately at its entrance, with uplifted eye, and busily engaged in
shouting, at intervals, to the yet advancing assailants. The squatters
approached cautiously and unperceived; for so deeply was the youth
interested in the fate of those for whom his voice and hands were alike
uplifted, that he was conscious of nothing else at that moment of
despair and doubt. The very silence which at that time hung over all
things, seemed of itself to cloud and obstruct, while they lulled the
senses into a corresponding slumber.

It was well for the youth, and unlucky for the assassin, that, as
Dexter, with his uplifted hatchet--for fire-arms at that period he dared
not use, for fear of attracti