Page:Edward Ellis--Seth Jones.djvu/97

94 "Off yonder, a short distance. Hadn't we better get closer together?"

"No; I don't know as there is any necessity for it. We're as safe, drawn up in this style, as in any other I can imagine."

"I am afraid, Haldidge, they will make an attempt to surround us. In such a case, wouldn't Haverland be in great peril?"

"They can't get around him without running their heads in range with our rifles, and Alf is a man who'll be pretty sure to discover such a trick without any help."

"Where can Seth be?"

"Not very far off; that shot of mine will be pretty sure to bring him."

"Haldidge, how was it that you discovered these Mohawks? Did you know of their presence before you fired?"

"Yes, long before. I've an idea they've been tracking you for an hour or two."

"Why, then, was their attack deferred?"

"They have made no attack, remember. I don't believe they had any such intention. There is an ambush somewhere ahead that they have laid, and it was their idea to walk you into that."

"What was their notion in watching us so closely."

"They were hunting for me, for I heard them say as much, and, I suppose, in case you didn't walk into their trap, why they were going to make the attack."

"Can it be that Seth has fallen into the snare?" asked Graham in anxious tones.

"No, sir; such a thing can't be. He isn't such a fool as that amounts to. He is making himself generally useful; you can make your mind to that. He is a smart chap, for all he is the most awkward, long-legged, gawky person I ever came across."

"I am puzzled to know who he is. It seems to me that he is only playing a part. Several times in conversing with him, he has used language such as none but a scholar and polished gentleman would use. At others and most of the time, he uses that ungainly mode of expression, which in itself, is laughable. At any rate, whoever he may be, he is a friend, and the interest which in takes in the safety of Haverland and his family, is as efficient as it is singular."