isk our scalps for the chance o' makin'
peace wi' a rovin' war-party. Keep yer head down, Henri! If they git
only a sight o' the top o' yer cap, they'll be down on us like a breeze
o' _wind_."

"Hah! let dem come!" said Henri.

"They'll come without askin' yer leave," remarked Joe drily.

Notwithstanding his defiant expression, Henri had sufficient prudence to
induce him to bend his head and shoulders, and in a few minutes they
reached the shelter of the willows unseen by the savages. At least so
thought Henri, Joe was not quite sure about it, and Dick hoped for the
best.

In the course of half an hour the last of the Camanchees was seen to
hover for a second on the horizon, like a speck of black against the
sky, and then to disappear.

Immediately the three hunters bolted on their steeds and resumed their
journey; but before that evening closed they had sad evidence of the
savage nature of the band from which they had escaped. On passing the
brow of a slight eminence, Dick, who rode first, observed that Crusoe
stopped and snuffed the breeze in an anxious, inquiring manner.

"What is't, pup?" said Dick, drawing up, for he knew that his faithful
dog never gave a false alarm.

Crusoe replied by a short, uncertain bark, and then bounding forward,
disappeared behind a little wooded knoll. In another moment a long,
dismal howl floated over the plains. There was a mystery about the
dog's conduct which, coupled with his melancholy cry, struck the
travellers with a superstitious feeling of dread, as they sat looking at
each other in surprise.

"Come, let's clear it up," cried Joe Blunt, shaking the reins of his
steed, and galloping forward. A few strides brought them to the other
side of the knoll where, scattered upon the torn and bloody turf, they
discovered the scalped and mangled remains of about twenty or thirty
human beings. Their skulls had been cleft by the tomahawk, and their
breasts pierced by the scalping-knife; and from the position in which
many of them lay, it was evident that they had been slain while asleep.

Joe's brow flushed, and his lips became tightly compressed, as he
muttered between his set teeth, "Their skins are white."

A short examination sufficed to show that the men who had thus been
barbarously murdered while they slept had been a band of trappers, or
hunters; but what their errand had been, or whence they came, they could
not discover.

Everything of value had been carried o