"But
here comes one who may know its secret windings still better than I."
"Ellen! Ellen Wade," cried Paul Hover, who had advanced to his elbow,
without betraying any of that sensitiveness which had so manifestly
discomposed the Doctor; "I didn't expect to find an enemy in you!"
"Nor shall you, when you ask that, which I can grant without
treachery. You know that my uncle has trusted his family to my care,
and shall I so far betray the trust as to let in his bitterest enemies
to murder his children, perhaps, and to rob him of the little which
the Indians have left?"
"Am I a murderer--is this old man--this officer of the States,"
pointing to the trapper and his newly discovered friend, both of whom
by this time stood at his side, "is either of these likely to do the
things you name?"
"What is it then you ask of me?" said Ellen, wringing her hands, in
excessive doubt.
"The beast! nothing more nor less than the squatter's hidden,
ravenous, dangerous beast!"
"Excellent young woman," commenced the young stranger, who had so
lately joined himself to the party on the prairie--but his mouth was
immediately stopped by a significant sign from the trapper, who
whispered in his ear--
"Let the lad be our spokesman.
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