Wild Western Scenes Part 13

"Dod speak on--I want to hear what it was--I've been laying here all this time waiting to know what great thing it was that skeered you so much. I never laughed so in all my life as I did when he got a-straddle of you. I was coming up to the sled, when I saw you streaking it through the vines and briers, and then I squatted down awhile to see what would turn up next."

"Ha! ha! ha! is it you, Sneak? I thought you was an Indian! Come on, I'll tell now. _It was a man's moccasin_!" said Joe, in a low, mysterious tone.

"And you ran in that manner from an old moccasin!" said Glenn, reproachfully.

"But there was a _foot_ in it!" continued Joe.

"A _he_ man's foot?" inquired Sneak, quickly turning to Joe.

"How could I tell whether it was a he man's foot, or a female woman's, as you call them?" replied Joe.

"Are you sure it was a human being's foot?" demanded Glenn.

"Well, I never saw any other animal but a man wear a buckskin moccasin!" replied Joe.

"An Irishman can't tell any thing right, nohow you can fix it," said Sneak.

"They can't tell how you make wooden nutmegs," retorted Joe.

"Come," said Glenn, "we will go and examine for ourselves."

The party set off in a brisk walk, and soon reached the scene of Joe's alarm. Sure enough, there was the moccasin, and a man's foot in it!

"It's somebody, after all," said Sneak, giving the frozen foot a kick.

"Ain't you ashamed to do that?" said Joe, knitting his brows.

"He's nothing more than a stone, now. Why didn't he holler when you stuck your knife into him?" replied Sneak.

"Dig him up, that we may see who he is," said Glenn.

"I'd rather not touch him," said Joe.

"You're a fool!" said Sneak. "Stand off, and let me at him--I'll soon see who he is." Sneak threw down his maskrats, and with his spear and knife soon extricated the body, which he handled as unceremoniously as he would have done a log of wood. "Dod rot your skin!" he exclaimed, when he brushed the snow from the man's face. He then threw down the body with great violence.

"Oh don't!" cried Joe, while the cold chills ran up his back.

"Who is it?" asked Glenn.

"It's that copper-snake, traitor, skunk, water-dog, lizard-hawk, horned frog--"

"Who do you mean?" interrupted Glenn.

"_Posin_, the maliverous rascal who collogued with the Injins to murder us all! I'm glad he got his dose--and if he was alive now, I'd make him swaller at least two foot of my spear," said Sneak.

"'Twas me--I killed him--look at the buck-shot holes in his back!"

exclaimed Joe, now recovering from his excitement and affright.

"Yes, and you're a nice chap, ain't you, to run like flugins from a dead man that you killed yourself!" said Sneak.

"How did I know that I killed him?" retorted Joe.

"Any fool might know he was dead," replied Sneak.

"I'll pay you for this, some of these times," said Joe.

"How shall we bury him?" asked Glenn.

"That can be done real easy," said Sneak, taking hold of the dead man's leg and dragging him along on the snow like a sled.

"What are you going to do with him?" demanded Glenn.

"I'm a going to cut a hole in the ice on the river, and push him under," said Sneak.

"You shall do no such thing!" said Glenn, firmly; "he must be buried in the earth."

"Just as you say," said Sneak, submissively, throwing down the leg.

"Run home and bring the spades, Joe," said Glenn, "and call for the ferrymen to a.s.sist us."

"And I'll take the sled along and leave it in the yard," said Joe, starting in the direction of the deer and calling the hounds after him.

"Let the hounds remain," said Glenn. "I am resolved to have my fox-hunt." Joe soon disappeared.

"If you want to hunt, you can go on; Roughgrove and me will bury this robber," said Sneak.

"Be it so," said Glenn; "but remember that you are not to put him in the river, nor must you commit any indecent outrage upon his person.

Let his body return to the earth--his soul is already in the hands of Him who created it."

"That's as true as gospel," said Sneak; "and I would rather be froze in this snow than to have his hot berth in the t'other world. I don't feel a bit mad at him now--he's paying for his black dagiverous conduct hard enough by this time, I'll be bound. I say, Mr. Glenn, it'll be rather late when we get through with this job--will there be any vacant room at your fireside to-night?"

"Certainly, and something to eat--you will be welcome, provided you don't quarrel too much with Joe," replied Glenn.

"Oh, Joe and me understand each other--the more we quarrel the more we love one another. We'll never fight--do you mind that--for he's a coward for one thing, and I won't corner him too close, because he's broad-shouldered enough to _lick me_, if he was to take it into his head to fight."

Glenn called the hounds after him and set out in quest of the fox, and Sneak turned to the dead body and mused in silence.

CHAPTER VII.

Boone--The interment--Startling intelligence--Indians about--A skunk--Thrilling fears--Boone's device.

Ere long Joe was on his way back to the cave-spring, with several spades on his shoulder, accompanied by Boone, (who had just crossed the river on a visit to Glenn,) and Roughgrove, with his two oarsmen.

"Is Glenn at the spring with Sneak?" asked Boone, in a very thoughtful and grave manner.