"
"Think you," returned the old man, pointing scornfully at the mazes of
the dry and matted grass which environed them, "that mortal feet can
outstrip the speed of fire, on such a path! If I only knew now on
which side these miscreants lay!"
"What say you, friend Doctor," cried the bewildered Paul, turning to
the naturalist with that sort of helplessness with which the strong
are often apt to seek aid of the weak, when human power is baffled by
the hand of a mightier being, "what say you; have you no advice to
give away, in a case of life and death?"
The naturalist stood, tablets in hand, looking at the awful spectacle
with as much composure as if the conflagration had been lighted in
order to solve the difficulties of some scientific problem. Aroused by
the question of his companion, he turned to his equally calm though
differently occupied associate, the trapper, demanding, with the most
provoking insensibility to the urgent nature of their situation--
"Venerable hunter, you have often witnessed similar prismatic
experiments--"
He was rudely interrupted by Paul, who struck the tablets from his
hands, with a violence that betrayed the utter intellectual confusion
which had overset the equanimity of his mind.
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