Page:Hugh Pendexter--Kings of the Missouri.djvu/238

 "Same feller that nipped me," shuddered Porker. Then hopefully: "Some say ye ain't in any danger if ye kill th' cuss." "That's right," heartily agreed Lander. "Besides, I burned all the poison out."

"I don't count much on th' burnin'. Took too long for th' iron to heat. What ye oughter done was rub in gunpowder an' touch it off. Wal, I'm derned glad he's dead, an' let's be gittin' away from here."

It was with difficulty that they induced him to wait until they had eaten. He refused to touch any food.

"Eat something," insisted Phinny.

"Curse ye, I ain't hungry!" snarled Porker, striding to the mules and beginning to saddle up.

Phinny looked at Lander inquiringly.

"I don't know any more than you do," said Lander. "Bridger and Baker say mad wolves will pass by food and seem keen only to bite something. I don't even know that that dead brute was mad; or if he was if he's the same one that bit Porker. But if Porker gets to thinking things hard enough he'll go mad."

They mounted, and Porker, contrary to his usual custom, rode some distance ahead of his