tion. I urged him towards the Indians, and Firefly closely
followed me. The horse I rode was not disposed to pass the fire and the
sleeping forms; but I pounded his naked ribs till he changed his mind,
and stepped over the legs of his drunken master. Firefly snorted, and
sprang over the obstruction.

"Hoo!" shouted the savage, over whose legs I had passed, springing to
his feet.

But he was too drunk to stand up, and pitched over upon the body of his
companion. As the path was now clear for an instant, Mr. Mellowtone
urged his horse forward, and joined me. Our other horse, which I had
always called Cracker, though Matt never recognized the name, followed
without making any sensation whatever. The fall of the one Indian upon
the other had awakened the latter, and by the light of the blazing
sticks I saw them clutch each other. Probably the second, in his tipsy
stupor, supposed the first was an enemy, having designs upon his life.
They rolled over together, and in the struggle the legs of one of them
were thrown upon the fire.

Such an unearthly yell I had never heard. He was not so drunk that fire
would not burn him, and the pain made him howl like a wounded buffalo.
They rolled and struggled, and the firebrands were scattered in every
direction. In a moment they sprang to their feet, but only to fall
again upon the burning brands which were strown over the ground. They
did not appear to see us, though we had halted quite near them, curious
to see the result of the struggle.

As they fell upon the earth, the brands burned them, and they leaped to
their feet again; but they no longer grappled with each other. It was
now only getting up and falling down, and this continued until they had
stumbled out of the circuit where the brands had been strown. Exhausted
by the violence of their exertions, or bewildered by the fumes of the
liquor, they lay still, and we started on our return to the Castle. If
the Indians saw us at all, they were unable to follow us; and their
experience seemed to point the moral that, when one steals horses, he
must not steal whiskey at the same time.

"They had a warm time of it," said my companion, as we jogged along
very slowly through the forest, for the horses we rode could not be
persuaded to go faster than a walk.

"I am glad they wasted their strength upon each other, instead of us."

"What a condition for a human being to be in!" added Mr. Mellowtone,
with an expression of disgust.