, you see I am surrounded by a force that can
easily put me down, and you know, or ought to know, too well the temper of this
family, to trifle in such a matter, with any of its members, let them be of what
sex or age they may.«
    »I am not entirely ignorant of human character,« returned the Naturalist,
prudently receding a little from the position, which he had, until now, stoutly
maintained at the very base of the hill. »But here comes one, who may know its
secret windings still better than I.«
    »Ellen! Ellen Wade,« cried Paul Hover, who had advanced to his elbow,
without betraying any of that sensitiveness which had so manifestly discomposed
the Doctor, »I didn't expect to find an enemy in you!«
    »Nor shall you, when you ask that, which I can grant, without treachery. You
know that my uncle has trusted his family to my care, and shall I so far betray
the trust, as to let in his bitterest enemies, to murder his children, perhaps,
and to rob him of the little which the Indians have left!«
    »Am I a murderer! is this old man, this Officer of the States,« pointing to
the trapper and his newly discovered friend, both of whom by this time, stood at
his side, »is either of them likely to do the things you name.«
    »What is it then, you ask of me?« said Ellen, wringing her hands in
excessive doubt.
    »The beast - nothing more nor less than the squatter's hidden, ravenous,
dangerous beast!«
    »Excellent young woman,« commenced the young stranger, who had so lately
joined himself to the party on the Prairie - but his mouth was immediately
stopped by a significant sign from the trapper, who whispered in his ear -
    »Let the lad be our spokesman. Natur will work in the bosom of the child,
and we shall gain our object, in good time.«
    »The whole truth is out, Ellen,« Paul continued, »and we have lined the
squatter into his most secret misdoings. We have come, to right the wronged, and
to free the imprisoned, now if you are the girl of a true heart, as I have
always believed, so far from throwing straws in our way, you will join in the
general swarming, and leave old Ishmael and his hive to the bees of his own
breed.«
    »I have sworn a solemn oath