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"So long, then!" said Jesse, bravely waving his hand. "So long!" said Rob and John. They waved their caps to one another, as each boat now began its way, the Jaybird carrying three passengers, and the long dugout, under the tracking line, taking what remained of the expedition of our voyageurs, who now separated for the time to take different directions on the stream they had followed thus far.
"Yes," said he; "I think the three of us will take the Jaybird loaded light and run down to the head of the mountain without much trouble. I don't hear of anything particularly nasty down below here until you get nearly to the gorge. I think we had better hire these two breeds for a time, put them on pay from the time they start up the river with Moise and Mr. Jess.
"It's really too toomultuous for a joke, an' mebby breaks the pony's neck, mebby the rider's. But whether he saves his neck or no, the party whose pony is thus tailed allers emergers tharfrom deshevelled an' wrought-up, an' hotter than a wolf. So no one plays this yere joke much; not till he's ready to get shot at. "As I says, this Jaybird watches Todd as he rides off.
"'What for a play would it be, says Jaybird, rousin' up from where he lays watchin' of the cook slice salt hoss for the fryin'-pan, 'what for a game would it be, I says, for a passel of us to lay out up the draw, an' bush-whack this yere ontaught person Todd as he comes ridin' down to camp?
This remark from the youngest of the party caused the old voyageur to look at him approvingly. "That's right," said he, "we'll not hurry." Moise was by this time examining the load of the Mary Ann, arranging the packs so that she would trim just to suit his notion when Rob was in place at the bow. Alex paid similar care to the Jaybird.
"One of Jaybird's jokes 'one of his best, Jaybird calls it results in stampedin' the herd of cattle we-alls is bringin' along at the time bein' all cows an' their calves to a brandin'-pen. Which thar's two thousand, big an' little, in the bunch; an' Jaybird's humor puts 'em to flight like so many blackbirds; an' it takes two days hard ridin' for the whole outfit to bring 'em together ag'in.
"Enright takes the same view; so Jaybird an' Moore an' Tutt wanders off up the canyon a mile, an' lays in wait surreptitious to head off Todd. Jack tells me the story when him an' Tutt comes ridin' back with the corpse. "'This is how we does, says Jack. 'Me an' Tutt an' deceased which last is Jaybird all right enough is ensconced behind a p'int of rocks.
Doc Peets tells him himse'f one day he's plumb wrong. "'You-all's nacherally a somber, morose party, says Doc Peets this time, 'an' nothin' jocose or jocund about you. Your disp'sition, Jaybird, don't no more run to jokes than a prairie-dog's." "'Which I would admire to know why not? says Jaybird Bob. "'Well, goes on Doc Peets, 'you thinks too slow too much like a cow in a swamp.
Please take them to your boys, and to the girls, if they'll have them, and say we want to come and see them some time." "That's very nice," said Alex. "I thank you very much." He shook each of them by the hand quietly, and then, dropping lightly into the Jaybird as she lay alongside, paddled off steadily into the darkness, with Indian dignity now, saying no further word of farewell.
He had merely shot at a raucous jaybird in a tree, and the upstairs window pane, the innocent bystander, as it were, had fallen inward with a sharp tinkle of broken glass. The mishap had brought down on him the warning from his father that if it, or any similar exploit, were repeated, the air gun would be confiscated. "But I didn't mean to, Papa!" he had cried.
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