THE TEXAN HUNTRESS. 307 
calm man, with the light from one small window, or port-hole 
rather, falling upon his table and his gray hairs! 
The strange effect was not a little heightened by the sur- 
roundings of this person. I had now, in the unbroken silence, 
sufficient leisure to observe these appliances, which were en- 
tirely inexplicable to me at the time. First, I noticed a 
small rude furnace in one corner, near to which were scat- 
tered about some small hammers, files, tongs and other tools 
used in working iron and steel; while near the desk were some 
ten or a dozen small models carved from wood with great 
neatness, and having occasional springs, bolts, &c. of metal. 
Such a maze of wheels, cogs, cranks, balls, bolts and all that 
sort of thing was there, that one could form no idea of their 
meaning, not even whether they all belonged to the same 
machine, or were the parts of one whole, waiting to be put to- 
gether ! 
On knots and pegs, in crannies, and strewed in all sorts of con- 
fusion about the floor and on rude shelves, were every con- 
ceivable variety of parts that appeared to have been formed 
for machinery of models or a model. These parts were prin- 
cipally of wood, as the metals seemed to have been used with 
every possible frugality, since they must, of course, have been 
very difficult to obtain and to transport in such a region. A 
few of the simplest of the common implements of carpentry 
were hung around the room or thrown about the floor. It 
seemed as if the tools and their creations had all been shaken 
in a bag together and then whirled around the room to roll 
together, to fall or stick, where and as they might. It was 
certainly a droll looking place, and there was one mysterious 
seeming recess which was hung with skins, but which was, 
as it appeared to me, too small for a bed, and added no little 
to my curiosity. 
The woman now came in. 
“He 1s bruised, William,—what shall we do?” 
‘ The man looked up, slightly. 
