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"It is fortunate," said Seguin, looking after him for some moments, "that they have trampled the ground about here, else the tracks made in our last encounter would certainly have told tales upon us." "Thur's no danger about that," rejoined Rube; "but when we rides from hyur, cap'n, we mustn't foller their trail. They'd soon sight our back tracks.
"I don't like this hyur timber; it's too scant. Cudn't yer put us in the crik bottom, Rowl?" "There's a heavy chaparral," said the Frenchman, musing; "it's ten miles off. If we could reach that we're safe a wolf can hardly crawl through it. We must make it before day." "Lead on, then, Rowl!" We stole along with cautious steps.
If we kin oncest git through the thick o' 'em, we mout make the brush, an' creep under it to the big caves on t'other side. Them caves jines one another, an' we mout dodge them thur. I seed the time this 'coon kud 'a run a bit, but these hyur jeints ain't as soople as they wur oncest. We kin try neverthemless; an' mind, young fellur, it's our only chance: do 'ee hear?"
"O Lord!" cried the negro, "ef Mist' Dode was hyur! Him's goin', an' him's las' breff is given ter de beast! Mars' Joe," calling in his ear, "fur God's sake say um prayer!" The man moved restlessly, half-conscious. "I wish David was here, to pray for me." The negro gritted his teeth, choking down an oath. "I wish, I thort I'd die at home, allays. That bed I've slep' in come thirty years.
It's clur enuf: ye'll acknowledge that, won't ye?" "No," I replied in a firm voice. "Ye won't? The hell, ye won't? Look hyur, stranger! I'm in airnest. Look in my eye, an' see if I ain't! I gi' ye warnin' then, that ef ye're not out o' this clarin' in six jumps o' a squ'll, you'll niver go out o' it a livin' man. You see that ere stump?
I's afeerd that trapper's rubbed out; an' thur ain't many more o' his sort in the mountains. No, that thur ain't. "Rot it!" continued the voice, with a fierce emphasis; "this comes o' layin' one's rifle ahint them. Ef I'd 'a had Tar-guts wi' me, I wudn't 'a been hidin' hyur like a scared 'possum.
"I wish to see Mr Holt," I replied, struggling hard to keep my temper. "Ye wish to see Mister Holt? Thur's no Mister Holt 'bout hyur." "No?" "No! damnation, no! Didn't ye hear me!" "Do I understand you to say, that Hickman Holt does not live here?" "You understan' me to say no sich thing. Eft's Hick Holt ye mean, he diz live hyur." "Hick Holt yes that is the name." "Wall what o't, ef't is?"
He rolled his quid and placidly answered: "Huk-uh; when I move, all I haffter do is put out the fire and call the dog." His apparent indifference was only philosophy expressed with sardonic humor; just as another neighbor would say, "This is good, strong land, or it wouldn't hold up all the rocks there is around hyur."
"Now, Cap," said Lincoln, as we seated ourselves at the table of a cafe, "I'll answer t'other question yur put last night. I wur up on the head of Arkansaw, an' hearin' they wur raisin' volunteers down hyur, I kim down ter jine. It ain't often I trouble the settlements; but I've a mighty puncheon, as the Frenchmen says, to hev a crack at them yeller-bellies.
I was in that dreamy state, half-sleeping half-waking, when I was aroused by a strange noise that sounded like a multitude of voices the voices of children. Raising my head I perceived the hunter in an attitude of listening. "What is it, Bob?" I inquired. "Dod rot me if I kin tell, Cap'n! Hyur, Rowl! what's all this hyur channerin?" "It's the araguatoes," muttered the Frenchman, half-asleep.
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