midnight
True , he was still feeble , and his limbs trembled at times like those of an old man ; but the disease had gone , and the stern , unbending will had resumed its sway . He was not a child , but he was Shasta , the Pah Utah Indian . The inexperience of Elwood Brandon and Howard Lawrence with these strange people made this savage an enigma to them . As he stood with his arms folded , his blanket wrapped around him , his long black hair streaming over his shoulders , and the mingling of the paint on his crown and over his face , and his midnight eyes fixed upon them , it was hard indeed to conjecture the thoughts filtrating through his brain . But there is a language in which the human heart can speak -- that of emotion . The boys felt no fear -- ingratitude is not an element of the savage character , though sad to say it is sometimes manifested among us of greater moral pretensions . He looked at them as they came up and paused a few feet from him .