IN THE OLD WEST 65 



lock on the center 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 re- 

 moved it entirely from the head, and giving the 

 reeking 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 nigger," exclaimed the trap- 

 per ; " 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 liis 

 thigh, the point being perceptible near the sur- 

 face 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 



