Two chosen horses, however,
stood near by, held by a couple of youths, who were too young to go
into the conflict, and yet of an age to understand the management of
the beasts. The trapper perceived in this arrangement the reluctance
of Mahtoree to trust his newly-found flowers beyond the reach of his
eye; and, at the same time, his forethought in providing against a
reverse of fortune. Neither had the manner of the Teton, in giving his
commission to the old savage, nor the fierce pleasure with which the
latter had received the bloody charge, escaped his observation. From
all these mysterious movements, the old man was aware that a crisis
was at hand, and he summoned the utmost knowledge he had acquired, in
so long a life, to aid him in the desperate conjuncture. While musing
on the means to be employed, the Doctor again attracted his attention
to himself, by a piteous appeal for assistance.
"Venerable trapper, or, as I may now say, liberator," commenced the
dolorous Obed, "it would seem, that a fitting time has at length
arrived to dissever the unnatural and altogether irregular connection,
which exists between my inferior members and the body of Asinus.
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