228 REVOLTING STORY 



waiting for some dreadful story not yet told. 

 His father spoke, and he started ; then, having 

 given him a live ember to light his half-emptied 

 pipe, he relapsed into his steadfast gaze of 

 vacancy. 



Not a word, not a gesture, had escaped the 

 attentive ears and sparkling eyes of some men 

 of his tribe who arrived just as he began to speak. 

 Never was man more patiently listened to ; his 

 grief, or the long pauses which counterfeited it, 

 were not once interrupted, except by his own 

 wailings : but when he had concluded, a kind of 

 hollow muttering arosefrom thegrouped Indians ; 

 and the spokesman of their number began a 

 speech, at first in a subdued tone, and then, 

 gradually elevating his voice with the energy of 

 one strongly excited, he finished by denouncing 

 him as a murderer and a cannibal. The accused 

 hesitated a few seconds, mechanically whiffing 

 at his exhausted pipe, — and then, with the most 

 stoical indifference, calmly denied the charge. 



But, from that instant, his spirits fell; and 

 the anxious and painful expression of his 

 countenance, whenever his son was absent for a 

 moment, betrayed the consciousness of guilt. 

 He could no longer look his fellow man in the 

 face. 



Those who had roused this inward storm kept 

 aloof, as from a poisonous reptile ; and, having 



