BORDER LIFE IN THE WEST. 
231 
to regard him as more tlie brute than the man, and you will 
find that your studies in natural history have not been thrown 
away. 
These wretches were wolves, and I had often seen this 
animal exhibit this counterfeit sleep before in actual nature, 
and therefore knew what it meant. The joke was, though, 
that my friend had actually out-wolfed the wolves at their 
own game of counterfeit, and to all appearances I had been 
nearly as successful, for they began now to stir rather simul- 
taneously. 
The sleep of Yankee had continued as profound as from 
the first ; my friend's face seemed as stolid as ever, and I 
suppose I too must have loohed the sleeper better than the 
wolf could counterfeit it, for they clearly took it for granted 
that I was sound asleep — since they commenced telegraphing 
to each other now through the silence by gestures! 
" Suddenly there came a rapping" at the thin plank door ; 
the fellows did not stir, nor did we ! Now came knocks 
louder and more frequent, which left us both without any 
pretext for remaining quiet any longer, so we sprang to our 
feet simultaneously, and as if really awakening from a deep 
sleep, and asked, "What is the matter? — what does this 
mean ?" 
The men deliberately and sluggishly arose, and the host 
opened the door, while I threw on an additional piece of 
bark to the fire. 
Out from the cavernous dark emerged the most grotesque 
form that ever Retsch figured as the lank-haired goblin of 
some haunted fountain, creeping up to stare upon the light, 
and fright its fated victim. 
He was dripping from every stringy lock, and each tatter 
streamed with its separate stream. His face, ghostly cadav- 
erous and thin, seemed from its hollow eyes to stare the 
jaundiced famine of a sick vulture — sickened on the green 
sance of slime, amidst which its ofial prey had floated. Too 
rich ! — too rich ! for even such a stomach. 
