68 OLD JAKE'S ADVENTURE. 



turn up the crick, or wade it and keep by the main 

 river, when I noticed in the soft bank the fresh tracks 

 o' a moccasin. I knowed well enuff 'twur a Redskin 

 made 'em, an' I skinned my eyes, ye may bet high, to 

 get a glimp o' the crittur. Now, boyees, don't you 

 think I hankered arter that Injun's scalp. No ! I've 

 gev up that sort o' bisness sin' last year, when I got to 

 see how sinful an* wicked it wur to kill our kind. 

 But this child took a notion that mebbe that thur Red- 

 skin wurn't Christianized, an' mout take a fancy to my 

 old top-knot to fringe his leggin's with. So I jest kep' 

 my old peepers alive, and follered the trail, which wur 

 plain to be seed as Chimbly Rock. I warn't long in 

 kummin to whur the crick canoned through the rocks, 

 and hyur I noticed the sign led into the water, which 

 washed clost up to the face o' the bluffs. The banks 

 kep' on risin' higher an' higher, an' soon they a'most 

 closed up a couple o' hundred feet overhead. 'Twur 

 mighty bad walkin', fellurs, I kin tell yer. The water 

 wur strong, an' in places wur deep enuff a'most to float 

 this niggur off his legs. Wai, I wur wonderin' what'n 

 thunder cud 'a brought that Redskin up sich a horrible 

 gulch, whur thur warn't light enuff to squint through 

 hindsights, when, jest as I made a bend in the crick, 

 what shed I see but that Injun 'ithin a hundred yards 

 o' me, climbin' up the bluff like a wild-cat torst a hole 

 I noticed under a rocky ledge sixty feet above the 

 water. 



" I guess I drew back out o' sight, and watched what 



