United States or Saint Lucia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Sae I'll tell ye a' I ked anent the murther and the robbery at Castle Lone; but de'il hae me gin I tell ye onything else!" exclaimed Rose Cameron. "The witness is quite right in her premises, though censurable in her manner of expressing them. Proceed with the examination," said the judge. The assistant Q.C. bowed to the Bench and turned to the witness.
He said he ked take us a near cut up the gully through which we've just come arter ascendin' one o' the heads o' the Loosyvana Rod. Near cut! Doggone it, he's been righter than I reck'n he thort o'. Stead o' your bones thar's yur body, wi' as much beef on't as ever. Now I've told our story, we want yourn, the which appears to be a darned deal more o' a unexplainable mistry than ourn.
If we go forward now, they may see us before we get within shooting distance. So you think, Cully, you can take up the trail at night, supposing it to be a dark one?" "Pish!" retorts the old prairie-man, with a disdainful toss of his head. "Take up the trail o' a Tenawa Injun? I'd do that in the darkest night as iver shet down over a prairie. The skunks! I ked smell the place they'd passed over."
Sure enough there is the direction they have taken." "Well! ef I wan't bothered wi' these hyar animals, I ked follow them tracks easy enough. We'd soon kum upon the wheel agin, I reck'n: they ain't a-goin' to travel fur, wi' a hump like thet on thar shoulders." "No; it's not likely." "Wal, then, capt'n, s'pose we leave our critters hyar, an' take arter 'em afut?
Then we ked gie 'em a second, and load an' fire half a dozen times afore they could mount up hyar if they'd dar to try it. Ah! it's too fur. The distance in these hyar high purairas is desprit deceivin'. Durned pity we kedn't do it. I fear we can't." "If we should miss, then " "Things 'ud only be wuss. I reck'n we'd better let'm slide now, and foller arter.
But thar is. Even war we to cut clar through, kill every skunk o' 'em, our work 'ud be only begun. Thar's two score to meet us below. What ked we do wi' 'em? No, Frank; we mout tackle these twelve wi' some sort o' chance, but two agin forty! It's too ugly a odds. No doubt we ked drop a good grist o' 'em afore goin' under, but in the eend they'd git the better o' us kill us to a sartinty."
We ked niver hev toted our doin's es we've did; an' but for the piece o' bacon an' thet eer bag o' meal, we'd a sterved long afore this, I recking. Don't cuss the berra." "Och! it's made my showlders ache, as if some skhoundrel had been batin' them wid a sprig ov shillaylah!" "Ne'er a mind 'bout thet! yer shoulders 'll be all right arter ye've got a wink o' sleep.
"Thar's somethin' queery in what the coyoats doin'," is Walt's half-soliloquised observation; adding, "Though what he's arter tain't so eezy to tell. He must be tired o' their kumpany, and want to get shet o' it. He'll be supposin' they ain't likely to kum back arter him; an' I reck'n they won't, seein' they've got all out o' him they need care for. Still, what ked he do stayin' hyar by himself?"
"Marciful heavens!" he exclaims, suddenly making halt, the gun almost dropping from his grasp. "Kin it be possyble? Frank Hamersley gone under! Them buzzards! They've been upon the groun' to a sartinty. Darnashin! what ked they a been doin' down thar? Right by the bunch o' palmetto, jest whar I left him. An' no sign o' himself to be seen? Marciful heavens! kin it be possyble they've been ?"
"The durned scoundrel," hissed Walt, through clenched teeth. "What's kep him ahint, I wonder?" Hamersley responds not he, too, conjecturing. "By Jehorum!" continues the hunter, "it looks like he'd stayed back apurpose. Thar ked been nothin' to hinder him to go on 'long wi' the rest. The questyun air what he's stayed for. Some trick o' trezun, same as he's did afore."
Word Of The Day