She was now to be seen
seated on a point of the rock, with her person so entirely enveloped
in her dress as to conceal her features. Here she had remained for
near an hour, no one approaching to address her, and as it appeared to
her own quick and jealous eyes, totally unobserved. In the latter
particular, however, even the vigilance of the quick-sighted Ellen was
deceived.
The first act of Paul Hover, on finding himself the master of
Ishmael's citadel, had been to sound the note of victory, after the
quaint and ludicrous manner that is so often practised among the
borderers of the West. Flapping his sides with his hands, as the
conquering game-cock is wont to do with his wings, he raised a loud
and laughable imitation of the exultation of this bird; a cry which
might have proved a dangerous challenge had any one of the athletic
sons of the squatter been within hearing.
"This has been a regular knock-down and drag-out," he cried, "and no
bones broke! How now, old trapper, you have been one of your training,
platoon, rank and file soldiers in your day, and have seen forts taken
and batteries stormed before this--am I right?"
"Ay, ay, that have I," answered the old man, who still maintained his
post at the foot of the rock, so little disturbed by what he had just
witnessed, as to return the grin of Paul, with a hearty indulgence in
his own silent and peculiar laughter; "you have gone through the
exploit like men!"
"Now tell me, is it not in rule, to call over the names of the living,
and to bury the dead, after every bloody battle?"
"Some did and other some didn't.
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