is dog Peter, Roland immediately beheld the latter
run to a post forty or fifty paces further in advance, when he paused to
receive the final orders of his master, which were given with a motion of
the same hand that a moment after beckoned the party to follow. Had
Roland been sufficiently nigh to take note of proceedings, he would have
admired the conduct of the little brute, the unerring accuracy with which
he pursued the trail, the soft and noiseless motion with which he stepped
from leaf to leaf, casting his eyes ever and anon to the right and left,
and winding the air before him, as if in reality conscious of peril, and
sensible that the welfare of the six mortals at his heels depended upon
the faithful exercise of all his sagacity. These things, however, from
the distance, Roland was unable to observe; but he saw enough to convince
him that the animal addressed itself to its task with as much zeal and
prudence as its master. A sense of security, the first felt for several
hours, now began to disperse the gloom that had oppressed his spirits;
and Edith's countenance, throughout the whole of the adventure a
faithful, though doubtless somewhat exaggerated reflection of his own,
also lost much of its melancholy and terror, though without at any moment
regaining the cheerful smiles that had decked it at the setting out. It
was left for Roland alone, as his mind regained its elasticity, to marvel
at the motley additions by which his party had increased in so short a
time to twice its original numbers, and to speculate on the prospects of
an expedition committed to the guidance of such a conductor as little
Peter.

CHAPTER XII.

The distance at which Roland with his party followed the guides, and the
gloom of the woods, prevented his making any close observations upon
their motions, unless when some swelling ridge, nearly destitute of
trees, brought them nearer to the light of the upper air. At other times
he could do little more than follow with his eye the tall figure of
Nathan, plunging from shadow to shadow, and knoll to knoll, with a pace
both free and rapid, and little resembling the shambling, hesitating step
with which he moved among the haunts of his contemners and oppressors. As
for the dog, little Peter, he was only with difficulty seen when
ascending some such illuminated knoll as has been mentioned, when he
might be traced creeping along with unabated vigilance and caution.

It was while ascending