Wild Western Scenes Part 14

"Yes, sir, I left him there, and I now hear him with the hounds chasing a fox," replied Joe, in true native style.

"If he is with the hounds, he is certainly not at the spring,"

remarked Roughgrove.

"I meant that he was there, or _thereabouts_" replied Joe.

"Who found the dead man?" inquired Boone.

"I did--that is, when the dogs scented him--and it almost frightened me when I dug out his foot," said Joe.

"No doubt!" observed Boone.

The party now moved along in silence, still permitting Joe to lead the way, until they suddenly emerged from the thicket in the immediate vicinity of the spring, when an unexpected scene attracted their notice. Sneak was composedly seated on the body of the dead man, and very deliberately searching his pockets!

"Well! that beats all the mean actions I ever beheld before!" said Joe, pausing and staring indignantly at Sneak.

"You're a fool!" replied Sneak.

"What for? because I wouldn't rob the dead?" retorted Joe.

"Do you call this robbing the dead? Hain't this traitor stoled this lump of gold from the Injins?" said Sneak, displaying a rough piece of the precious metal about the size of a crow's egg.

"Is it gold?" asked Joe, with some anxiety.

"Sartainly it is," answered Sneak, handing it to him to be examined; "and what good could come of burying it agin? I'll leave it to Mr.

Boone to say if I ain't right in taking it myself."

"Oh, any thing worth this much ought to be taken," said Joe, depositing the lump of gold in his pocket.

"See here, my chap," said Sneak, rising up and casting a furious glance at him, "if you don't mean to hand that out again, one or the t'other of us must be put in the ground with the traitorious Posin--and if it is to be you, it'll be a purty thing for it to be said that you brought a spade to bury yourself with."

"Didn't I find the body?" said Joe.

"But burn me if you found the gold," said Sneak.

"Shall I decide the matter?" interposed Roughgrove.

"I'm willing," said Sneak.

"And so am I," replied Joe.

"Then give it to me, and I'll cut it in two, and give a half to each of you," said Roughgrove.

The decision was final; and seizing the spades, Joe, Sneak, and the oarsmen began to prepare a resting-place for the dead body. Boone continued silent, with his eyes steadfastly gazing at the earth which the workmen began to throw up.

"Posin's done ferrying now," said Dan Rudder, one of the defunct's old companions in the service of Roughgrove.

"No he ain't," said Sneak, throwing up a spadeful of flint stones.

"I'll keep some of these for my musket," said Joe.

"Why ain't he?" demanded Dan.

"Because he's got to cross the river--the river--what do they call it?--the river Poles," said Sneak.

"Styx, you dunce," said Joe.

"Well, 'twas only a slip of the tongue--what's the difference between poles and sticks?"

"_You_ never read any thing about it; you only heard somebody say so,"

said Joe, pausing to listen to the hounds that ever and anon yelped in the vicinity.

"If I didn't, I don't believe the man that wrote that book ever crossed, or even had a squint at the river himself," replied Sneak.

"Whereabouts is the river?" asked Dan.

"In the lower regions," said Joe, striking his spade against a hard substance.

"What's that you're sc.r.a.ping the dirt off of?" asked Sneak.

"Oh, my goodness!" cried Joe, leaping out of the grave.

"Let it remain!" said Boone, in a commanding tone, looking in and discovering a skull; "I once buried a friend here--he was shot down at my side by the Indians."

"Fill up the hole agin! Posin shan't lay on top of any of your friends!" exclaimed Sneak, likewise leaping out of the grave.

"It matters not--but do as you please," said Boone, turning away and marking the distressed yelping of the hounds, which indicated, from some unusual cause, that they did not enjoy the chase as much as was their wont.

"Split me if he shan't be buried somewhere else, if I have to dig the hole myself," said Sneak, filling up the grave.

"I'll stick by you, Sneak," said Dan.

"Dan and me 'll finish the job; all the rest of you may go off," said Sneak, releasing the rest of the party from any further partic.i.p.ation in the depositing of the remains of Posin in the earth.

"Glenn does not yet understand Ringwood and Jowler," said Boone, still listening to the chase.

"I never heard the dogs bark that way before until to-day," said Joe; "only that night when we killed the buffalo."

"Something besides the buffalo caused them to do it then," replied Boone.

"Yes, indeed--they must have known the fire was coming--but the fire can't come now."

"Sneak," said Boone, "when you are done here, come to Mr. Glenn's house."

"I will, as soon as I go to my muskrat trap out at the lake and get my rifle."

"Be in a hurry," said Boone; and turning towards the chase, he uttered a "Ya-ho!" and instantly the hounds were hushed.