Chapter 17 - Page 2

on equal terms. But what has one so near his time to do
with ill-blood and hot-blood at his heart! Listen to what a grey head
and some experience have to offer, and then if any among you can point
out a wiser fashion for a retreat, we can just follow his design, and
forget that I have spoken. This thicket stretches for near a mile as
it may be slanting from the rock, and leads towards the sunset instead
of the settlements."

"Enough, enough," cried Middleton, too impatient to wait until the
deliberative and perhaps loquacious old man could end his minute
explanation. "Time is too precious for words. Let us fly."

The trapper made a gesture of compliance, and turning in his tracks,
he led Asinus across the trembling earth of the swale, and quickly
emerged on the hard ground, on the side opposite to the encampment of
the squatter.

"If old Ishmael gets a squint at that highway through the brush,"
cried Paul, casting, as he left the place, a hasty glance at the broad
trail the party had made through the thicket, "he'll need no finger-
board to tell him which way his road lies. But let him follow! I know
the vagabond would gladly cross his breed with a little honest blood,
but if any son of his ever gets to be the husband of--"

"Hush, Paul, hush," said the terrified young woman, who leaned on his
arm for support; "your voice might be heard."

The bee-hunter was silent, though he did not cease to cast ominous
looks behind him, as they flew along the edge of the run, which
sufficiently betrayed the belligerent condition of his mind. As each
one was busy for himself, but a few minutes elapsed before the party
rose a swell of the prairie, and descending without a moment's delay
on the opposite side, they were at once removed from every danger of
being seen by the sons of Ishmael, unless the pursuers should happen
to fall upon their trail. The old man now profited by the formation of
the land to take another direction, with a view to elude pursuit, as a
vessel changes her course in fogs and darkness, to escape from the
vigilance of her enemies.

Two hours, passed in the utmost diligence, enabled them to make a half
circuit around the rock, and to reach a point that was exactly
opposite to the original direction of their flight. To most of the
fugitives their situation was as entirely unknown as is that of a ship
in the middle of the ocean to the uninstructed voyager: but the old
man proceeded at every turn, and through every bottom, with a decision
that inspired his followers with confidence, as it spoke favourably of
his own knowledge of the localities. His hound, stopping now and then
to catch the expression of his eye,