to his exertions. Thus prepared at all points, and ready for his
desperate undertaking, the Teton gave the signal to proceed.
    The three advanced in a line with the encampment of the travellers, until,
in the dim light by which they were seen, their dusky forms were nearly lost to
the eyes of the prisoners. Here they paused, looking around them like men who
deliberate and ponder long on the consequences before they take a desperate
leap. Then sinking together, they became lost in the grass of the Prairie.
    It is not difficult to imagine the distress and anxiety of the different
spectators of these threatening movements. Whatever might be the reasons of
Ellen for entertaining no strong attachment to the family in which she has first
been seen by the reader, the feelings of her sex, and, perhaps, some lingering
seeds of kindness, predominated. More than once she felt tempted to brave the
awful and instant danger that awaited such an offence, and to raise her feeble
and in truth impotent voice in warning. So strong, indeed, and so very natural
was the inclination, that she would most probably have put it in execution, but
for the often-repeated though whispered remonstrances of Paul Hover. In the
breast of the young bee-hunter himself, there was a singular union of emotions.
His first and chiefest solicitude was certainly in behalf of his gentle and
dependant companion; but the sense of her danger was mingled in the breast of
the reckless woods-man with a consciousness of a high and wild, and by no means
an unpleasant excitement. Though united to the emigrants by ties still less
binding than those of Ellen, he longed to hear the crack of their rifles, and,
had occasion offered, he would gladly have been among the first to rush to their
rescue. There were in truth moments when he felt in his turn an impulse, that
was nearly resistless, to spring forward and awake the unconscious sleepers; but
a glance at Ellen would serve to recall his tottering prudence, and to admonish
him of the consequences. The trapper, alone, remained calm and observant, as if
nothing that involved his personal comfort or safety had occurred. His
ever-moving, vigilant eyes, watched the smallest change, with the composure of
one too long inured to scenes of danger to be easily moved, and with an
expression of cool determination which denoted the intention he actually
harboured, of profiting by the smallest oversight on the part of the captors.
    In the mean time the Teton warriors had not been idle. Profiting by the high
fog which grew in the bottoms,