LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 145 



tilted wagons, drawn by several pairs of mules, approaching the 

 very spot where they sat. Several mounted men were, riding 

 about the wagons, and two on horseback, in advance of all, were 

 approaching the rock, when they observed the smoke curling from 

 the hunters' fire. They halted at sight of this, and one of the two, 

 drawing a long instrument from a case, which Killbuck voted a 

 rifle, directed it toward them for a moment, and then, lowering it, 

 again moved forward. 



As they drew near, the two poor trappers, although half-dead 

 with joy, still retained their seats with Indian gravity and immo- 

 bihty of feature, turning now and then the crackling snakes which 

 lay on the embers of the fire. The two strangers approached. 

 One, a man of some fifty years of age, of middle height and stoutly 

 built, was clad in a white shooting-jacket, of cut unknown in 

 mountain tailoring, and a pair of trowsers of the well-known 

 material called " shepherd's plaid ;" a broad-brimmed Panama 

 shaded his face, which was ruddy with health and exercise ; a belt 

 round the waist supported a handsome bowie-knife, and a double- 

 barreled fowling-piece was dung across his shoulder. 



His companion was likewise dressed in a light shooting-jacket, 

 of many pockets and dandy cut, rode on an English saddle and in 

 boot'i, and was armed with a superb double rifle, glossy from the 

 case, and bearing few marks of use or service. He was a tall, 

 fine-looking fellow of thirty, with hght hair and complexion ; a 

 scrupulous beard and mustache ; a wide-awake hat, with a short 

 pipe stuck in the band, not very black with smoke ; an elaborate 

 powder-horn over his shoulder, with a Cairngorm in the butt as 

 large as a plate ; a blue handkerchief tied round his throat in a 

 sailor's knot, and the collar of his shirt turned carefully over it. 

 He had, moreover, a tolerable idea of his very correct appearance, 

 and wore Woodstock gloves. 



The trappers looked at them from head to foot, and the more 

 they looked, the less could they make them out. 



G 



