"I can well believe that, Joe, for I have met with such persons myself; in fact, they are rather numerous. What are you chuckling at, Joe?"

"Chucklin'? if ye mean be that `larfin' in to myself' it's because I'm thinkin' o' a chap as once comed out to the prairies."

"Let us walk back to the camp, Joe, and you can tell me about him as we go along."

"I think," continued Joe, "he comed from Washington, but I never could make out right whether he wos a government man or not. Anyhow, he wos a pheelosopher--a natter-list I think he call his-self."

"A naturalist," suggested Cameron.

"Ay, that wos more like it. Well, he wos about six feet two in his moccasins, an' as thin as a ramrod, an' as blind as a bat--leastways he had weak eyes an wore green spectacles. He had on a grey shootin' coat and trousers and vest and cap, with rid whiskers an' a long nose as rid at the point as the whiskers wos.

"Well, this gentleman engaged me an' another hunter to go a trip with him into the prairies, so off we sot one fine day on three hosses with our blankets at our backs--we wos to depend on the rifle for victuals.

At first I thought the Natter-list one o' the cruellest beggars as iver went on two long legs, for he used to go about everywhere pokin' pins through all the beetles, and flies, an' creepin' things he could sot eyes on, an' stuck them in a box; but he told me he comed here a-purpose to git as many o' them as he could; so says I, `If that's it, I'll fill yer box in no time.'

"`Will ye?' says he, quite pleased like.

"`I will,' says I, an' galloped off to a place as was filled wi' all sorts o' crawlin' things. So I sets to work, and whenever I seed a thing crawlin' I sot my fut on it and crushed it, and soon filled my breast pocket. I coched a lot o' b.u.t.terflies too, an' stuffed them into my shot pouch, and went back in an hour or two an' showed him the lot.

He put on his green spectacles and looked at them as if he'd seen a rattlesnake.

"`My good man,' says he, `you've crushed them all to pieces!'

"`They'll taste as good for all that,' says I, for somehow I'd taken't in me head that he'd heard o' the way the Injuns make soup o' the gra.s.shoppers, an was wantin' to try his hand at a new dish!

"He laughed when I said this, an' told me he wos collectin' them to take home to be _looked_ at. But that's not wot I wos goin' to tell ye about him," continued Joe; "I wos goin' to tell ye how we made him eat horseflesh. He carried a revolver, too, this Natter-list did, to load wi' shot as small as dust a-most, and shoot little birds with. I've seed him miss birds only three feet away with it. An' one day he drew it all of a suddent and let fly at a big b.u.m-bee that wos pa.s.sin', yellin' out that it wos the finest wot he had iver seed. He missed the bee, of coorse, cause it was a flyin' shot, he said, but he sent the whole charge right into Martin's back--Martin was my comrade's name. By good luck Martin had on a thick leather coat, so the shot niver got the length o' his skin.

"One day I noticed that the Natter-list had stuffed small corks into the muzzles of all the six barrels of his revolver. I wondered what they wos for, but he wos al'ays doin' sich queer _things_ that I soon forgot it. `May be,' thought I, jist before it went out o' my mind,--`may be he thinks that 'll stop the pistol from goin' off by accident,' for ye must know he'd let it off three times the first day by accident, and well-nigh blowed off his leg the last time, only the shot lodged in the back o' a big toad he'd jist stuffed into his breeches' pocket. Well, soon after, we shot a buffalo bull, so when it fell, off he jumps from his horse an runs up to it. So did I, for I wasn't sure the beast was dead, an' I had jist got up when it rose an' rushed at the Natter-list.

"`Out o' the way,' I yelled, for my rifle was empty; but he didn't move, so I rushed forward an' drew the pistol out o' his belt and let fly in the bull's ribs jist as it ran the poor man down. Martin came up that moment an' put a ball through its heart, and then we went to pick up the Natter-list. He came to in a little, an' the first thing he said was, `Where's my revolver?' When I gave it to him he looked at it, an' said with a solemcholy shake o' the head, `There's a whole barrel-full lost!'

It turned out that he had taken to usin' the barrels for bottles to hold things in, but he forgot to draw the charges, so sure enough I had fired a charge o' b.u.m-bees, an' beetles, an' small shot into the buffalo!

"But that's not what I wos goin' to tell ye yet. We comed to a part o'

the plains where we wos well-nigh starved for want o' game, an' the Natter-list got so thin that ye could a-most see through him, so I offered to kill my horse, an' cut it up for meat; but you niver saw sich a face he made. `I'd rather die first,' says he, `than eat it;' so we didn't kill it. But that very day Martin got a shot at a wild horse and killed it. The Natter-list was down in the bed o' a creek at the time gropin' for creepers, an' he didn't see it.

"`He'll niver eat it,' says Martin.

"`That's true,' says I.

"`Let's tell him it's a buffalo,' says he.

"`That would be tellin' a lie,' says I.

"So we stood lookin' at each other, not knowin' what to do.

"`I'll tell ye what,' cries Martin, `we'll cut it up, and take the meat into camp and cook it without _sayin' a word_.'

"`Done,' says I, `that's it;' for ye must know the poor creature wos no judge o' meat. He couldn't tell one kind from another, an' he niver axed questions. In fact he niver a-most spoke to us all the trip.

Well, we cut up the horse and carried the flesh and marrow-bones into camp, takin' care to leave the hoofs and skin behind, and sot to work and roasted steaks and marrow-bones.

"When the Natter-list came back ye should ha' seen the joyful face he put on when he smelt the grub, for he was all but starved out, poor critter.

"`What have we got here?' cried he, rubbin' his hands and sittin' down.

"`Steaks an' marrow-bones,' says Martin.

"`Capital!' says he. `I'm _so_ hungry.'

"So he fell to work like a wolf. I niver seed a man pitch into anything like as that Natter-list did into that horseflesh.

"`These are first-rate marrow-bones,' says he, squintin' with one eye down the shin bone o' the hind-leg to see if it was quite empty.

"`Yes, sir, they is,' answered Martin, as grave as a judge.

"`Take another, sir,' says I.

"`No, thankee,' says he with a sigh, for he didn't like to leave off.

"Well, we lived for a week on horseflesh, an' first-rate livin' it wos; then we fell in with buffalo, an' niver ran short again till we got to the settlements, when he paid us our money an' shook hands, sayin' we'd had a nice trip an' he wished us well. Jist as we wos partin' I said, says I, `D'ye know what it wos we lived on for a week arter we wos well-nigh starved in the prairies?'

"`What,' says he, `when we got yon capital marrow-bones?'

"`The same,' says I; `yon was _horseflesh_,' says I, `an' I think ye'll sur'ly niver say again that it isn't first-rate livin'.'

"`Yer jokin',' says he, turnin' pale.

"`It's true, sir, as true as yer standin' there.'

"Well, would ye believe it; he turned--that Natter-list did--as sick as a dog on the spot wot he wos standin' on, an' didn't taste meat again for three days!"

Shortly after the conclusion of Joe's story they reached the camp, and here they found the women and children flying about in a state of terror, and the few men who had been left in charge arming themselves in the greatest haste.

"Hallo! something wrong here," cried Cameron hastening forward followed by Joe. "What has happened, eh?"

"Injuns comin', monsieur, look dere," answered a trapper, pointing down the valley.

"Arm and mount at once, and come to the front of the camp," cried Cameron in a tone of voice that silenced every other, and turned confusion into order.

The cause of all this outcry was a cloud of dust seen far down the valley, which was raised by a band of mounted Indians who approached the camp at full speed. Their numbers could not be made out, but they were a sufficiently formidable band to cause much anxiety to Cameron, whose men, at the time, were scattered to the various trapping grounds, and only ten chanced to be within call of the camp. However, with these ten he determined to show a bold front to the savages, whether they came as friends or foes. He therefore ordered the women and children within the citadel formed of the goods and packs of furs piled upon each other, which point of retreat was to be defended to the last extremity. Then galloping to the front he collected his men and swept down the valley at full speed. In a few minutes they were near enough to observe that the enemy only numbered four Indians, who were driving a band of about a hundred horses before them, and so busy were they in keeping the troop together that Cameron and his men were close upon them before they were observed.

It was too late to escape. Joe Blunt and Henri had already swept round and cut off their retreat. In this extremity the Indians slipped from the backs of their steeds and darted into the bushes, where they were safe from pursuit, at least on horseback, while the trappers got behind the horses and drove them towards the camp.

At this moment one of the horses sprang ahead of the others and made for the mountain, with its mane and tail flying wildly in the breeze.

"Marrow-bones and b.u.t.tons!" shouted one of the men, "there goes d.i.c.k Varley's horse."

"So it am!" cried Henri, and dashed off in pursuit, followed by Joe and two others.

"Why, these are our own horses," said Cameron in surprise, as they drove them into a corner of the hills from which they could not escape.

This was true, but it was only half the truth, for, besides their own horses, they had secured upwards of seventy Indian steeds, a most acceptable addition to their stud, which, owing to casualties and wolves, had been diminishing too much of late. The fact was, that the Indians who had captured the horses belonging to Pierre and his party were a small band of robbers who had travelled, as was afterwards learned, a considerable distance from the south, stealing horses from various tribes as they went along. As we have seen, in an evil hour they fell in with Pierre's party and carried off their steeds, which they drove to a pa.s.s leading from one valley to the other. Here they united them with the main band of their ill-gotten gains, and while the greater number of the robbers descended further into the plains in search of more booty, four of them were sent into the mountains with the horses already procured. These four, utterly ignorant of the presence of white men in the valley, drove their charge, as we have seen, almost into the camp.