peepers upon
'em. Wouwough--ole woofy! got 'ee at last, has he! Yur a beauty, an'
no mistake."

So saying, he gathered the long crown locks in his left hand, and with
two slashes of his knife, held quarte and tierce, he cut a circle around
the top of the head, as perfect as if it had been traced by compasses.
He then took a turn of the hair over his wrist, giving it a quick jerk
outward. At the same instant, the keen blade passed under the skin, and
the scalp was taken!

"Counts six," he continued, muttering to himself while placing the scalp
in his belt; "six at fifty--three hunder shiners for 'Pash har; cuss
beaver trappin'! says I."

Having secured the bleeding trophy, he wiped his knife upon the hair of
one of the buffaloes, and proceeded to cut a small notch in the woodwork
of his gun, alongside five others that had been carved there already.
These six notches stood for Apaches only; for as my eye wandered along
the outlines of the piece, I saw that there were many other columns in
that terrible register!

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

ANOTHER "COUP."

A shot ringing in my ears caused me to withdraw my attention from the
proceedings of the earless trapper. As I turned I saw a blue cloud
floating away over the prairie, but I could not tell at what the shot
had been fired. Thirty or forty of the hunters had surrounded the
motte, and, halted, were sitting in their saddles in a kind of irregular
circle. They were still at some distance from the timber, as if keeping
out of arrow-range. They held their guns crosswise, and were shouting
to one another.

It was improbable that the savage was alone; doubtless there were some
of his companions in the thicket. There could not be many, however, for
the underwood was not large enough to conceal more than a dozen bodies,
and the keen eyes of the hunters were piercing it in every direction.

They reminded me of so many huntsmen in a gorse waiting the game to be
sprung; but here, the game was human.

It was a terrible spectacle. I looked towards Seguin, thinking that he
might interfere to prevent the barbarous battue. He noticed my
inquiring glance, and turned his face from me. I fancied that he felt
ashamed of the work in which his followers were engaged; but the
killing, or capture, of whatever Indians might be in the motte had now
become a necessary measure, and I knew that any remonstrance of mine
would be disregarded. As for the men themselves, they would