OF AN INDIAN. 229 



obtained the trifling articles which they wanted 

 from the store, returned to their hunting. 



The wretched man lingered about the Fort for 

 some time, and at length, accompanied by his 

 boy, sulkily left it. 



— — " Back to the thicket slunk 



The guilty serpent." 



But by a strange infatuation (such are the mys- 

 terious ways of Providence), instead of seeking 

 some lonely place where he might have hid his 

 guilt, and lived unmolested, he went to the 

 lodges of the very persons whom he had most 

 cause to avoid, — the men who had branded him 

 as a murderer and cannibal. 



He sought their hospitality, and was admitted ; 

 but an instinctive loathing, not unmixed with 

 apprehension, induced them to request his de- 

 parture. After a slight hesitation, he not only 

 refused, but, assuming a tone of defiance, uttered 

 such threats that the endurance of the Indians 

 was exhausted, and they shot him on the spot. 



More than one gun having been fired, the boy 

 was also wounded in the arm ; and, thinking to 

 mitigate their rage, he fled behind a tree, and 

 offered to confess all he knew, if they would only 

 spare his life. His wish was granted, and then was 

 told the most sickening tale of deliberate canni- 

 balism ever heard. The monster had, in truth, 



Q 3 



