osity to know whence he
had come or why he was there. This forbearance, however, proceeded only
in part, from the sluggishness of their common temper; for long and
frequent experience in scenes of a similar character, had taught them
the virtue of discretion. The trapper endured their sullen scrutiny with
the steadiness of one as practised as themselves, and with the entire
composure of innocence. Content with the momentary examination he had
made, the eldest of the group, who was in truth the delinquent sentinel
by whose remissness the wily Mahtoree had so well profited, turned
towards his father and said bluntly--

"If this man is all that is left of the party I saw on the upland,
yonder, we haven't altogether thrown away our ammunition."

"Asa, you are right," said the father, turning suddenly on the trapper,
a lost idea being recalled by the hint of his son. "How is it, stranger;
there were three of you, just now, or there is no virtue in moonlight?"

"If you had seen the Tetons racing across the prairies, like so many
black-looking evil ones, on the heels of your cattle, my friend, it
would have been an easy matter to have fancied them a thousand."

"Ay, for a town bred boy, or a skeary woman; though for that matter,
there is old Esther; she has no more fear of a red-skin than of a
suckling cub, or of a wolf pup. I'll warrant ye, had your thievish
devils made their push by the light of the sun, the good woman would
have been smartly at work among them, and the Siouxes would have found
she was not given to part with her cheese and her butter without a
price. But there'll come a time, stranger, right soon, when justice will
have its dues, and that too, without the help of what is called the law.
We ar' of a slow breed, it may be said, and it is often said, of us; but
slow is sure; and there ar' few men living, who can say they ever struck
a blow, that they did not get one as hard in return, from Ishmael Bush."

"Then has Ishmael Bush followed the instinct of the beasts rather than
the principle which ought to belong to his kind," returned the stubborn
trapper. "I have struck many a blow myself, but never have I felt the
same ease of mind that of right belongs to a man who follows his reason,
after slaying even a fawn when there was no call for his meat or hide,
as I have felt at leaving a Mingo unburied in the woods, when following
the trade of open and honest warfare."

"What, you have been a soldier, have you,