Chapter 31 - Page 2

the one most given to solicitude and doubt.
There were certain misgivings, in the frequent glances that he turned
on the unyielding countenance of Ishmael, which might have betrayed
how little of their former confidence and good understanding existed
between them. His looks appeared to be vacillating between hope and
fear. At times, his countenance lighted with the gleamings of a sordid
joy, as he bent his look on the tent which contained his recovered
prisoner, and then, again, the impression seemed unaccountably chased
away by the shadows of intense apprehension. When under the influence
of the latter feeling, his eye never failed to seek the visage of his
dull and impenetrable kinsman. But there he rather found reason for
alarm than grounds of encouragement, for the whole character of the
squatter's countenance expressed the fearful truth, that he had
redeemed his dull faculties from the influence of the kidnapper, and
that his thoughts were now brooding only on the achievement of his own
stubborn intentions.

It was in this state of things that the sons of Ishmael, in obedience
to an order from their father, conducted the several subjects of his
contemplated decisions, from their places of confinement into the open
air. No one was exempted from this arrangement. Middleton and Inez,
Paul and Ellen, Obed and the trapper, were all brought forth and
placed in situations that were deemed suitable to receive the sentence
of their arbitrary judge. The younger children gathered around the
spot, in momentary but engrossing curiosity, and even Esther quitted
her culinary labours, and drew nigh to listen.

Hard-Heart alone, of all his band, was present to witness the novel
and far from unimposing spectacle. He stood leaning, gravely, on his
lance, while the smoking steed, that grazed nigh, showed that he had
ridden far and hard to be a spectator, on the occasion.

Ishmael had received his new ally with a coldness that showed his
entire insensibility to that delicacy, which had induced the young
chief to come alone, in order that the presence of his warriors might
not create uneasiness, or distrust. He neither courted their
assistance, nor dreaded their enmity, and he now proceeded to the
business of the hour with as much composure, as if the species of
patriarchal power, he wielded, was universally recognised.

There is something elevating in the possession of authority, however
it may be abused. The mind is apt to make some efforts to prove the
fitness between its qualities and the condition of its owner, though
it may often fail, and render that ridiculous which was only hated
before. But the effect on Ishmael Bush was not so disheartening. Grave
in exterior, saturnine by temperament, formidable