Page:The Prairie Flower; Or, Adventures In the Far West.djvu/50



THE PRAIRIE FLOWER OR,

"' Ilurraw for us beavers! ' I sez; ' and U:t us go hair- raisin; ' and with that I takes my butcher and walks into the varmints; and them as wasn't dead I carved; and itrter I'd done, me and Sigh for Jake Couldn't work well we hove the meat into the water, christening it Cotton's Creek; then we dug a hole nii>'h 'bout

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whar you're standing, put in poor Jim, kivered him over, and jest as we was, all wounded, we mounted our critters and put

"And do ye think there is, maybe, iny of the likes of thim rid divils about here now., sure, Misther Trapper George?" inquired Teddy, with an uneasy look.

"Shouldn't wonder, boss; for we're agoin right toward 'em."

"Faith, thin," said Teddy, turning slightly pale, " maybe it's the wrong road ye're going now?"

"0, ye needn't fear I'll miss the track," answered the old hunter, who put a literal construction on the Irishman's words. " I know the ground as well as you know your own daddy."

"Agh! and well ye may, Misther George, and have little to brag on the whiles, jist," rejoined the other quickly. " But what I maan is, it's maybe if we take anither way, we'll not rin among the divils, and git made maat of as ye calls it, now."

"Why, Teddy," said I, " you are not becoming alarmed at this stage of the journey I hope?"

"Och, no! it's not alar-r-med meself is gittin at all, at all, barring a little fright

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maybe I has for your honor's safety."

"0, never mind me, Teddy," I replied. "I assure you 1 am doing very weli, and of course prepared myself to run all haz ards before I came here."

"Well," observed Huntly, " I think we had better set forward again, and select
 * ur camp early."

' That's a fact," cried Black George, springing to his feet with the agility of a youth of twenty : "You is right, boy right. Come, Tom, we's a-goin to put;" and he turned toward his saddle mule. "Hey! what!" he exclaimed suddenly, with a stress upon the words that instantly brought us all round him, eager to learn the cause.

But nothing could we discover, save that

j the old mule alluded to was snuffing the 1 air, with her ears bent forward and point ing steadily in one direction. Tivo or three words, however, from the old trap per, sufficed to enlighten and alarm us at the same time.

"Injins, boys rifles ready Suke's no liar." Then turning to Tom, who had also started to his feet on hearing the *irst j exclamation of Black George, he added : "Split for cover, Tom, and hunt for ' sign.' "

Scarcely was the sentence out of the old man's mouth, ere Tom was out of sight; for understanding all at a glance, he had turned at the first word, and, leaping across tin 1 stream, disappeared in a thicket on the outer side.

1 felt queer, I must own, for it was (he first time that danger had become appa rent to me; and this being concealed, I knew not what to expect, and of course magnified it considerably. Beside. ,, the story I had just heard, together with the quick and decisive movements of the trap pers, led me to anticipate a sudden onset from a large body of Indians. Determin ed to sell my life dearly, I grasped my rifle in one hand, and loosened my pistols and knife with the other. I cast a quick glance upon Huntly, and saw that he was also prepared for the worst. His features had paled a little, his brow was slightly wrin kled, and his lips compressed, showing a stern resolve. But the Irishman, in spite of my fears, amused me. Instead of bring ing up his rifle ready for an aim, Teddy had griped it midway, and was whirling it over his head as he would a shelaleh, the while raising first one foot and then the other in great excitement, as if treading on live coals, his face flushed, his eyes fixed in one direction, his nostrils expand ed, and his breast heaving with hard breathing.

"Quick!" exclaimed Black George; "fetch round the animals and make a breastwork to cover."

Instantly Huntly and 1 sprang to our horses, and the old trapper to his mules, while the Irishman, heeding nothing that was said, still continued his laborious gyrations. In less than a minute the ani mals were arranged in our front, and we were repriming our fire-w