,« exclaimed the old man,
hastening to join his friends, »and to make open and manful war. It would have
been policy to have kept back the struggle, until the Captain was in better
condition to join, but as we have unmasked our battery why we must maintain the
ground« -
    He was interrupted by feeling a gigantic hand on his shoulder. Turning under
a sort of confused impression that necromancy was actually abroad in the place,
he found that he was in the hands of a sorcerer - no less dangerous and powerful
than Ishmael Bush. The file of the squatter's well-armed sons, that was seen
issuing from behind the still standing tent of Mahtoree, explained at once not
only the manner in which their rear had been turned, while their attention had
been so earnestly bestowed on matters in front, but the utter impossibility of
resistance.
    Neither Ishmael, nor his sons deemed it necessary to enter into prolix
explanations. Middleton and Paul were bound, again, with extraordinary silence
and dispatch, and this time not even the aged trapper was exempt from a similar
fortune. The tent was struck, the females placed upon the horses, and the whole
were on the way towards the squatter's encampment with a celerity that might
well have served to keep alive the idea of magic.
    During this summary and brief disposition of things, the disappointed Agent
of Mahtoree and his callous associates were seen flying across the plain in the
direction of the retiring families, and when Ishmael left the spot with his
prisoners and his booty, the ground which had so lately been alive with the
bustle and life of an extensive Indian encampment was as still and empty as any
other spot in those extensive wastes.
 

                                  Chapter XXX

 »Is this proceeding just and honorable?«
                                                          2 Henry IV, IV.ii.110.
 
During the occurrence of these events on the upland plain, the warriors on the
bottom had not been idle. We left the adverse bands watching one another on the
opposite banks of the stream, each endeavoring to excite its enemy to some act
of indiscretion by the most reproachful taunts and revilings. But the Pawnee
chief was not slow to discover that his crafty antagonist had no objection to
waste the time in so idle, and as they mutually proved, so useless expedients.
He changed his plans accordingly, and withdrew from the bank, as has been
already explained through the mouth of the trapper, in order to invite the more
numerous host of the Siouxes to cross. The challenge was not accepted, and the
Loups, were compelled to frame some other method to attain their end