70 THRILLING ADVENTURES. 



KILLBUCK'S MULE. 



her ears as she recognised her master's voice. " Yep, old 

 gal ! and keep your nose open ; thar's brown skin about, I'm 

 thinkin', and maybe you'll get roped, (lassooed) by a Rapaho, 

 afore mornin'." 



Again the old trapper settled himself before the fire ; and 

 soon his head began to nod, as drowsiness stole over him. 

 Already he was in the land of dreams ; revelling among bands 

 of "fat cow," or hunting along a stream well peopled with 

 beaver ; with no Indian " sign" to disturb him, and the merry 

 rendezvous in close perspective, and his peltry selling briskly 

 at six dollars the plew, and galore of alcohol to ratify the 

 trade. Or, perhaps, threading the back trail of Jiis memory, 

 he passed rapidly through the perilous vicissitudes of his hard, 

 hard life starving one day, revelling in abundance the next; 

 now beset by whooping savages thirsting for his blood, baying 

 his enemies like a hunted deer, but with the unflinching cou- 

 rage of a man ; now, all care thrown aside, secure and for- 

 getful of the past, a welcome guest in the hospitable trading 

 fort ; or back, as the trail gets fainter, to his childhood's 

 home in the brown forests of old Kentuck, tended and cared 



