Ishmael made no objections; but,
though he accompanied his children while they proceeded in the
investigation, it was more with the appearance of complying with their
wishes, at a time when resistance might not be seemly, than with any
visible interest in the result. As the borderers, notwithstanding
their usual dulness, were well instructed in most things connected
with their habits of life, an enquiry, the success of which depended
so much on signs and evidences that bore so strong a resemblance to a
forest trail, was likely to be conducted with skill and acuteness.
Accordingly, they proceeded to the melancholy task with great
readiness and intelligence.
Abner and Enoch agreed in their accounts as to the position in which
they had found the body. It was seated nearly upright, the back
supported by a mass of matted brush, and one hand still grasping a
broken twig of the alders. It was most probably owing to the former
circumstance that the body had escaped the rapacity of the carrion
birds, which had been seen hovering above the thicket, and the latter
proved that life had not yet entirely abandoned the hapless victim
when he entered the brake.
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