BOEDER LIFE IN THE WEST. 217 



thropic proposition at once, and was instantly seconded by 



my friend H , who was himself a wary and experienced 



traveller. A comparative stranger to this whole region, I had 

 no definite suspicion, and for all I knew to the contrary, this 

 proposition might have been as unsophisticated and simply un- 

 meaning as any expression of the security of property that 

 might have fallen from the lips of a piping shepherd peasant 

 of Arcadia. But of a sooth, I had somehow learned to dis- 

 trust Arcadias in geneial, and river-shore Arcadias in partic- 

 ular. To be sure, my friend's manner had not been unnoted ; 

 but as he had not chosen to tender an explanation, I did not 

 choose to ask one, and besides, there was in the manner of 

 this man of the torch, whom I had closely watched, a some- 

 thing which I did not understand in the way in which he 

 tried the weight of those unfortunate silver-mounted boxes as 

 they were passed on to him by the boat's crew, for him to 

 keep in a convenient place upon the shore ! Our Yankee, 

 whom self-sufficiency had evidently as we say in the 

 "West "struck with the blind staggers," could not help 

 making the matter worse by joking with the fellow about 

 them. 



" Aint they very heavy?" asked he, with a shrewd wink 

 at us. " They had oughter have somethhr in 'em, I guess I" 



Therewith he snapped his eyes, shrugged his shoulders, 

 licked out his tongue and guffawed obstreperously. The fel- 

 low said " Yes, they is !" and looking up with a furtive 

 glance, he too laughed but it was with a strange laugh- 

 " You seem to be all right !" 



I noticed this incident and it threw me at once into the im- 

 perative mood, and seizing one end of the trunk of my friend, 

 which I knew to contain a large amount of valuables, I or- 

 dered the fellow to take the other, and whispering to H , 



as I passed him, said, 



" Stay here ; I will watch in the cabin !" 



The cabin of our compulsory host was about fifty paces 

 from the landing, and to reach it we had to pass through piles 



