Let him come on; my skins, my traps, and even my rifle shall be his, if he sees fit to demand them." "He will ask for neither:--he wants neither," returned the girl; "if he be an honest man, he will surely be content with his own, and ask for nothing that is the property of another." The trapper had not time to express the surprise he felt at this incoherent and contradictory language, for the man who was advancing, was, already, within fifty feet of the place where they stood .-- In the mean time, Hector had not been an indifferent witness of what was passing.

At the sound of the distant footsteps, he had arisen, from his warm bed at the feet of his master; and now, as the stranger appeared in open view, he stalked slowly towards him, crouching to the earth like a panther about to take his leap.
"Call in your dog," said a firm, deep, manly voice, in tones of friendship, rather than of menace; "I love a hound, and should be sorry to do an injury to the animal." "You hear what is said about you, pup ?" the trapper answered; "come hither, fool.

His growl and his bark are all that is left him now; you may come on, friend; the hound is toothless." The stranger profited by the intelligence.

He sprang eagerly forward, and at the next instant stood at the side of Ellen Wade.

After assuring himself of the identity of the latter, by a hasty but keen glance, he turned his attention, with a quickness and impatience, that proved the interest he took in the result, to a similar examination of her companion.
"From what cloud have you fallen, my good old man ?" he said in a careless, off-hand, heedless manner that seemed too natural to be assumed: "or do you actually live, hereaway, in the prairies ?" "I have been long on earth, and never I hope nigher to heaven, than I am at this moment," returned the trapper; "my dwelling, if dwelling I may be said to have, is not far distant.