Startled by the
suddenness of the action, his male companion moved a few
paces also from his. seat, to discover the cause of this
singular movement. The female, on the contrary, stirred
not, but ceasing for a moment the occupation in which
she had been engaged, fixed her dark and brilliant eyes
upon the tall and picturesque form of the rifleman, whose
active and athletic limbs, thrown into powerful relief
by the distention of each nerve and muscle, appeared to
engross her whole admiration and interest, without any
reference to the cause that had produced this abrupt and
hostile change in his movements. It was evident that,
unlike the other inhabitants of the town, this group had
been taken by surprise, and were utterly unprepared to
expect any thing in the shape of interruption.
For upwards of a minute, during which the march of the
men became audible even to the ears of the female, the
formidable warrior, for such his garb denoted him to be,
continued motionless in the attitude he had at first
assumed--his right cheek reposing on the ornamented stock
of his rifle, and his quick and steady eye fixed in one
undeviating line with the sight near the breech, and that
which surmounted the extreme end of the deadly weapon.
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