rring as much to the preacher's
age and pure white hair as to his connection with the white men, "finds
mystery where the hunter and the red man see none. I went out a-purpose
to see that it was not my daddy the Blackfoot reptiles had shot and soon
came across your tracks, which showed me as plain as a book that you was
badly wounded. I followed the tracks for a bit, expectin' to find you
lyin' dead somewheres, when the whoops of the reptiles turned me back.
But tell me, white father, are you not the preacher that my daddy and
Whitewing used to know some twenty years agone?"

"I am, and fain would I meet with my former friends once more before I
die."

"You shall meet with them, I doubt not," replied the young hunter,
arranging the couch of the wounded man more comfortably. "I see that my
soft one has bandaged you up, and she's better than the best o' sawbones
at such work. I'll be able to make you more comfortable when we drive
the reptiles out o'--"

"Call them not reptiles," interrupted the preacher gently. "They are
the creatures of God, like ourselves."

"It may be so, white father; nevertheless, they are uncommon low, mean,
sneakin', savage critters, an' that's all that I've got to do with."

"You say truth, Big Tim," returned the preacher, "and that is also all
that I have got to do with; but you and I take different methods of
correcting the evil."

"Every man must walk in the ways to which he was nat'rally born,"
rejoined the young hunter, with a dark frown, as the sound of revelry in
the hut overhead became at the moment much louder; "my way wi' them may
not be the best in the world, but you shall see in a few minutes that it
is a way which will cause the very marrow of the rep--of the _dear_
critters--to frizzle in their bones."

CHAPTER SEVEN.

BIG TIM'S METHOD WITH SAVAGES.

"I sincerely hope," said the wounded man, with a look of anxiety, "that
the plan you speak of does not involve the slaughter of these men."

"It does not" replied Big Tim, "though if it did, it would be serving
them right, for they would slaughter you and me--ay, and even Softswan
there--if they could lay hold of us."

"Is it too much to ask the son of my old friend to let me know what his
plans are? A knowledge of them would perhaps remove my anxiety, which I
feel pressing heavily on me in my present weak condition. Besides, I
may be able to counsel you. Although a man of peace, my life has been
but too freque