26 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



Taking his whetstone from the little sheath on his knife- 

 belt, the trapper proceeded to " edge " his knife, and then 

 stepping to the first prostrate body, he turned it over to 

 examine if any symptom of vitality remained. " Thrown 

 cold ! " he exclaimed, as he dropped the lifeless arm he 

 had lifted. " I sighted him about the long ribs, but the 

 light was bad, and I couldn't get a * bead ' ' off-hand ' any- 

 how." 



Seizing with his left hand the long and braided lock on 

 the centre of the Indian's head, he passed the point edge 

 of his keen butcher-knife round the parting, turning it at 

 the same time under the skin to separate the scalp from 

 the skull ; then with a quick and sudden jerk of his hand, 

 he removed it entirely from the head, and giving the reek- 

 ing trophy a wring upon the grass to free it from the blood, 

 he coolly hitched it under his belt, and proceeded to the 

 next ; but seeing La Bonte" operating upon this, he sought 

 the third, who lay some little distance from the others. 

 This one was still alive, a pistol -ball having passed 

 through his body without touching a vital spot. 



" Gut - shot is this niggur," exclaimed the trapper ; 

 " them pistols never throws 'em in their tracks ; " and 

 thrusting his knife, for mercy's sake, into the bosom of the 

 Indian, he likewise tore the scalp-lock from his head, and 

 placed it with the other. 



La Bonte had received two trivial wounds, and Killbuck 

 till now had been walking about with an arrow sticking 

 through the fleshy part of his thigh, the point being per- 

 ceptible near the surface of the other side. To free his leg 

 from the painful encumbrance, he thrust the weapon com- 

 pletely through, and then, cutting off the arrow-head 

 below the barb, he drew it out, the blood flowing freely 

 from the wound. A tourniquet of buckskin soon stopped 

 this, and, heedless of the pain, the hardy mountaineer 

 sought for his old mule, and quickly brought it to the fire 

 (which La Bonte had rekindled), lavishing many a caress, 

 and most comical terms of endearment, upon the faithful 

 companion of his wanderings. They found all the animals 

 safe and well ; and after eating heartily of some venison 



