dges, into a dark but clearly
marked profile; furnishing a clue by which the practised warrior was led
to a tolerably accurate estimate of the force he was about to encounter.
Still an unnatural silence pervaded the spot, as if men suppressed even
the quiet breathings of sleep, in order to render the appearance of
their confidence more evident. The chief bent his head to the earth, and
listened intently. He was about to raise it again, in disappointment,
when the long drawn and trembling respiration of one who slumbered
imperfectly met his ear. The Indian was too well skilled in all the
means of deception to become himself the victim of any common artifice.
He knew the sound to be natural, by its peculiar quivering, and he
hesitated no longer.

A man of nerves less tried than those of the fierce and conquering
Mahtoree would have been keenly sensible of all the hazard he incurred.
The reputation of those hardy and powerful white adventurers, who so
often penetrated the wilds inhabited by his people, was well known to
him; but while he drew nigher, with the respect and caution that a brave
enemy never fails to inspire, it was with the vindictive animosity of a
red man, jealous and resentful of the inroads of the stranger.

Turning from the line of his former route, the Teton dragged himself
directly towards the margin of the thicket. When this material object
was effected in safety, he arose to his seat, and took a better survey
of his situation. A single moment served to apprise him of the place
where the unsuspecting traveller lay. The reader will readily anticipate
that the savage had succeeded in gaining a dangerous proximity to one
of those slothful sons of Ishmael, who were deputed to watch over the
isolated encampment of the travellers.

When certain that he was undiscovered, the Dahcotah raised his person
again, and bending forward, he moved his dark visage above the face of
the sleeper, in that sort of wanton and subtle manner with which the
reptile is seen to play about its victim before it strikes. Satisfied at
length, not only of the condition but of the character of the stranger,
Mahtoree was in the act of withdrawing his head, when a slight movement
of the sleeper announced the symptoms of reviving consciousness. The
savage seized the knife which hung at his girdle, and in an instant it
was poised above the breast of the young emigrant. Then changing his
purpose, with an action as rapid as his own flashin