But now, when no exciting causes existed to arouse
their slumbering tempers, it seemed to be too great an effort to enter
on the defence of their rebellious brother. Abiram, however, who,
since the pacification, either felt, or affected to feel, a more
generous interest in his late adversary, saw fit to express an
anxiety, to which the others were strangers--
"It will be well if the boy has escaped the Tetons!" he muttered. "I
should be sorry to have Asa, who is one of the stoutest of our party,
both in heart and hand, fall into the power of the red devils."
"Look to yourself, Abiram; and spare your breath, if you can use it
only to frighten the woman and her huddling girls. You have whitened
the face of Ellen Wade, already; who looks as pale as if she was
staring to-day at the very Indians you name, when I was forced to
speak to her through the rifle, because I couldn't reach her ears with
my tongue. How was it, Nell! you have never given the reason of your
deafness?"
The colour of Ellen's cheek changed as suddenly as the squatter's
piece had flashed on the occasion to which he alluded, the burning
glow suffusing her features, until it even mantled her throat with its
fine healthful tinge.
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