"
"Ha! It would seem that Reuben hath fallen on the trail of savages! The
man in company is certainly in paint and blanket. It may be well to pause
at yonder opening, and await their coming."
As this proposition imposed no particular inconvenience, the Doctor
readily assented. The two drew nigh to the place where the men, whom
they saw crossing the fields in the distance, were expected to enter
the highway.
But little time was lost in attendance. Ere many minutes had elapsed,
Reuben Ring, accoutred and armed like the borderer already introduced
in this chapter, arrived at the opening, followed by the stranger
whose appearance had caused so much surprise to those who watched
their approach.
"What now, Sergeant," exclaimed Dudley, when the other was within
ear-shot, speaking a little in the manner of one who had legal right to
propound his questions; "hast fallen on a trail of the savage, and made a
captive? or hath some owl permitted one of its brood to fall from the
nest across thy foot-path?"
"I believe the creature may be accounted a man," returned the successful
Reuben, throwing the breech of his gun to the earth, and leaning on its
long barrel, while he intently regarded the half-painted, vacant, and
extremely equivocal countenance of his captive.
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