rnfully, "I know it well. It belonged to young Blake."
Glancing quickly up at a place where several scalps were hanging to a
pole, he took one down, and, after gazing at it sadly for a few seconds,
he added in a tone of deep melancholy: "Poor, poor Blake! ye had a
hearty spirit an' a kindly heart. Your huntin' days were soon over!"

"Was he a friend of yours?" inquired Bertram, affected by the old
trapper's look and tone.

"Ay, ay, he was, he was," said Redhand quickly, and with a sternness of
manner that surprised his companions; "come, lads, mount! mount! The
redskins won't part with plunder without making an effort to get it
back."

"But, stop a bit, Redhand," cried Bounce, detaining the old man, "ye
didn't use for to be so hot an' hasty. Where are we to go to? That's
wot I want to know."

"True," observed Redhand in his old gentle tones, "we've more horses
than we need, and some furs to dispose of. There's a tradin' fort in
the mountains, but it's a good bit from this."

"What o' that?" said March Marston somewhat impetuously. "Are we not
armed and well mounted and strong, and have we not lots o' time before
us?"

"Well said," cried Bounce.

"Ditto," echoed Waller.

"Then we'll do it!" cried Redhand, vaulting into the saddle with a
spring that a young man might have envied.

The others followed his example, and in a few seconds they were picking
their way carefully down the ravine in which the Indian camp was
situated. Leaving this quickly behind, they trotted briskly along the
more open banks of the river until they gained a level sweep of land
which terminated in a belt of low bushes. Beyond this lay the great
plains. Breaking into a gallop, they speedily cleared the underwood,
and just as the rosy smile of morning beamed in the eastern sky, they
dashed away, with light hearts and loose reins, out upon the springy
turf of the open prairie.

CHAPTER TEN.

SHORT TREATISE ON HORSEFLESH--REMARKS ON SLANG--DOINGS AND SIGHTS ON THE
PRAIRIE--THE MOUNTAIN FORT.

A horse is a wonderful thing--if we may presume to style so noble a
creature "a thing!" And the associations connected in some minds with a
horse are wonderful associations. No doubt a horse, to many people, is
a commonplace enough sort of thing; and the associations connected with
horseflesh in general, in some minds, are decidedly low--having relation
to tugging a cart, or tumbling along with a plough, or rattling with a
cab, or