208 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
bably never be satisfactorily discovered. In the meantime, 
men of sense will continue to laugh at the absurd theory, that 
they are the burying grounds of the Aztecs for their children, 
They must have been accommodating children to die by the 
thousand just about three feet high ! 
After examining the interior, without disturbing the limbs 
and body, I proceeded to lift the skull tenderly in my hand. 
IT now stood erect, holding it off from me to study its propor- 
tions—when a sudden yell so startled me that I came near 
dropping it in the shock. I looked around quickly, Jabe 
uttering a second yell of horror, was in the act of throwing 
his long rifle from him—then bending his head forward and 
fighting desperately about his ears, as if attacked by a whole 
nest of hornets, he bounded with another wild screech into 
the thicket, and, as far as I could hear him, he seemed to 
give a screech for each bound. I turned an inquiring look 
upon Charlie, who was rolling upon the leaves half dead with, 
smothered laughter. 
“Has he got into a yellow jacket’s nest, Charlie!’’ I in- 
quired, very soberly, of the ridiculous fellow, for I did not feel 
much like laughing. 
“No,” he gasped at last—“ but if you don’t look out you 
will have got into one, by that phrenological whim of yours. 
Jabe saw you with the skull in your hand, and it frightened 
him to death almost. You may rest assured that he will not 
stop now until every man in the circumference of twenty miles 
knows of this. There are not many of them to be sure, but 
they will be troublesome fellows to deal with.” 
“Well, what would you advise, Charlie?” 
“Why, that we both make a bee-line for home, right off? 
I think I can find the way out, and its no use meeting these 
fellows while they are exasperated. We'll return in a few 
weeks, when the thing has passed over ; and as I have no hand 
in it, Pll make your peace with the superstitious fools, and 
