The old man, from time to time, muttered his discontent,
but manifested the uneasiness he actually entertained in no other
manner, unless it might be in exhibiting a growing anxiety to urge the
animals to increase their speed. He pointed out in passing, the
deserted swale, where the family of the squatter had encamped, the
night they were introduced to the reader, and afterwards he maintained
an ominous silence; ominous, because his companions had already seen
enough of his character, to be convinced that the circumstances must
be critical indeed, which possessed the power to disturb the well
regulated tranquillity of the old man's mind.
"Have we not done enough," Middleton demanded, in tenderness to the
inability of Inez and Ellen to endure so much fatigue, at the end of
some hours; "we have ridden hard, and have crossed a wide tract of
plain. It is time to seek a place of rest."
"You must seek it then in Heaven, if you find yourselves unequal to a
longer march," murmured the old trapper. "Had the Tetons and the
squatter come to blows, as any one might see in the natur' of things
they were bound to do, there would be time to look about us, and to
calculate not only the chances but the comforts of the journey; but as
the case actually is, I should consider it certain death, or endless
captivity, to trust our eyes with sleep, until our heads are fairly
hid in some uncommon cover.
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