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Updated: June 20, 2025
"I can't see why it is," observed Tolly, when the first whiffs curled from Mahoghany Drake's lips, "that you men are so strong in discouragin' us boys from smokin'. You keep it all selfishly to yourselves, though Buckie an' I would give anythin' to be allowed to try a whiff now an' then.
The gleaming weapon was yet in the air when the loud report of a rifle close at hand burst from the bushes with a sheet of flame and smoke, and the robber's right arm fell powerless at his side, hit between the elbow and shoulder. It was the rifle of Mahoghany Drake that had spoken so opportunely.
One o' these habits is that it turns in of a night quite reg'lar an' has a good snooze before goin' to work next day. Its name is Mahoghany Drake, an' that's me, so I'll bid you good-night, stranger. "Wi' that I knocked the ashes out o' my pipe, stretched myself out wi' my feet to the fire, an' rolled my blanket round me.
Next moment, picking up his empty rifle, he stalked from the fringe of bushes that partially screened the cliff, and gave himself up. "Ha! I know you Mahoghany Drake! Is it not so?" cried Stalker, savagely. "Seize him, men. You shall swing for this, you rascal." Two or three of the robbers advanced, but Drake quietly held up his hand, and they stopped.
Little Tolly Trevor and Leaping Buck being about the same age, and having similar tastes and propensities, though very unlike each other in temperament soon became fast friends, and they both regarded Mahoghany Drake, the trapper, with almost idolatrous affection. "Would you care to come wi' me to-day, Tolly? I'm goin' to look for some meat on the heights."
The trapper indulged in a quiet chuckle as he said this. "What are ye larfin' at?" asked Paul. "At the gold-seekers," replied Drake. "What was the matter wi' 'em," asked Tolly. "Not much, lad, only they was blind, and also ill of a strong appetite." "Ye was always fond o' speakin' in riddles," said Paul. "What d'ye mean, Mahoghany!"
Fred Westly thought the same, when Paul afterwards told him about the meeting, though he did not feel quite so sure about the return being immediate; but Mahoghany Drake differed from them entirely. "Depend on't," he said to his friend Paul, when, in the privacy of a retired spot on the mountain-side, they discussed the matter "depend on't, that young feller ain't made o' butter.
"But you forget, Paul, that Gashford and his men are here, and will probably endeavour to lay hold of me. I can scarce look on myself as other than an outlaw." "Pooh! lay hold of you!" exclaimed Paul, with contempt; "d'ye think Gashford or any one else will dare to touch you with Mahoghany Drake an' Mister Fred an' Flinders an' me, and Unaco with all his Injins at your back?
Not far from these another tent was erected for Fred and his invalid friend Tom Brixton. As for Mahoghany Drake, that lanky, lantern-jawed individual encamped under a neighbouring pine-tree in quiet contempt of any more luxurious covering.
It had stood many a siege in times past, and when used as a fortress, whether by white hunters or savages, the plank bridge was withdrawn, and the place rendered at least esteemed impregnable. When Mahoghany Drake and his young friends came up to the chasm a little before sunset Leaping Buck took a short run and bounded clear over it. "Ha!
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