This
course brought him directly upon, and in contact with, Ralph, who stood
immediately at its entrance, with uplifted eye, and busily engaged in
shouting, at intervals, to the yet advancing assailants. The squatters
approached cautiously and unperceived; for so deeply was the youth
interested in the fate of those for whom his voice and hands were alike
uplifted, that he was conscious of nothing else at that moment of
despair and doubt. The very silence which at that time hung over all
things, seemed of itself to cloud and obstruct, while they lulled the
senses into a corresponding slumber.
It was well for the youth, and unlucky for the assassin, that, as
Dexter, with his uplifted hatchet--for fire-arms at that period he dared
not use, for fear of attracting the attention of his foes--struck at his
head, his advanced foot became entangled in the root of a tree which ran
above the surface, and the impetus of his action occurring at the very
instant in which he encountered the obstruction, the stroke fell short
of his victim, and grazed the side of his horse; while the ruffian
himself, stumbling forward and at length, fell headlong upon the ground.
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