REVENGE. 295 



to come in. The carcasses of two deer hung upon 

 trees by their camp fire, and long strings of jerked 

 venison, hung upon poles around. I crept closer still, 

 and as one of them rose to his feet and turned towards 

 rne, there stood that long-armed, gigantic Ingcn, that 

 danced round my father's dwellin', as the flames were 

 consumin* it, carry in' aloft the reekin' scalps of my 

 murdered kindred. In the other, as I got sight of his 

 face, I saw another of the eight, whose faces had been 

 with me always since that horrible night. You can't 

 think how great my joy was, when I saw them there 

 before me. I watched 'em, and glared upon 'em, and 

 gloated over 'em, as the tiger watches and glares upon 

 his prey, from his secret hidin' place. Worlds would 

 not have purchased their safety. I would have 

 spurned heaps of gold, if offered for their lives, and the 

 prayers of all the good men in the world, wouldn't 

 have saved them from my fury. They were mine, 

 mine for destruction, as a feast for my vengeance. I 

 was like a starvin' panther, a hungry and whelp-robbed 

 bear. I lay there till night came on, and they slept. 

 I crept to where they lay, and removed their rifles. I 

 stole their huntin' knives from, their sheaths, and 

 threw them to a distance. They had gorged them- 



