It would have been policy to have kept back the struggle, until the
Captain was in better condition to join, but as we have unmasked our
battery, why, we must maintain the ground--"
He was interrupted by feeling a gigantic hand on his shoulder.
Turning, under a sort of confused impression that necromancy was
actually abroad in the place, he found that he was in the hands of a
sorcerer no less dangerous and powerful than Ishmael Bush. The file of
the squatter's well-armed sons, that was seen issuing from behind the
still standing tent of Mahtoree, explained at once, not only the
manner in which their rear had been turned, while their attention had
been so earnestly bestowed on matters in front, but the utter
impossibility of resistance.
Neither Ishmael, nor his sons deemed it necessary to enter into prolix
explanations. Middleton and Paul were bound again, with extraordinary
silence and despatch, and this time not even the aged trapper was
exempt from a similar fortune. The tent was struck, the females placed
upon the horses, and the whole were on the way towards the squatter's
encampment, with a celerity that might well have served to keep alive
the idea of magic.
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