laimed--

"He's a splendid fellow--Dick!"

Mary, both by looks and words, highly approved of this opinion. "And
yet," said she somewhat abstractedly, "this bees the man who peepils
call--"

Mary pursed her lips suddenly.

"Call _what_?" inquired March quickly.

"Wicked, wild, bad man," replied Mary, who, fortunately, could say all
this with perfect truth without betraying her secret. In fact, poor
Mary had never had a secret confided to her before, and having been told
by the Wild Man of the West that she was on no account to reveal his
real title to their guest, she was in the utmost perplexity lest it
should slip out unawares.

"Mary," said March, who was always stumbling upon the verge of the truth
in a most unaccountable way, without actually getting hold of it, "have
you ever seen the Wild Man of the West?"

"Yes," replied the girl with a gay smile.

"Have you? Well now, that's odd! How much I should like to see him.
To tell you the truth, one of my chief reasons for coming here was to
see him. What like is he?"

"Like Dick," replied the girl quietly.

"Like Dick!" echoed March in surprise; "why, that's what Dick said
himself, and yet, by all accounts, his character must be very different
from that of Dick, who seems to be the kindest, tenderest-hearted man
that ever came to trap in the Rocky Mountains."

"What does peepil say 'bout this Wild Mans of the West?" inquired Mary.

"That he's awful fierce an' terrible cruel, an' ten or fifteen feet
high, I forget which, for everybody gives him a different height."

Mary laughed. "Bees that all?"

"Oh no! They say he eats men."

Mary laughed again.

"An' women and bars--raw."

Mary laughed louder and longer than ever, and when she laughed she
looked so ineffably sweet that March resolved to go on with the
catalogue of the Wild Man's virtues piecemeal, waiting for the laugh
between each statement, until there was not another idea left in his
brain for his tongue to utter. But this amiable intention was
frustrated by the report of a gun outside, which echoed and re-echoed
among these savage cliffs like muttering thunder. It was followed by a
yell that caused Mary to start up with a look of horror and rush out of
the cave, leaving the invalid in a most distressing state of uncertainty
as to what he should do, and in no little anxiety as to what would
happen next.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

THE MYSTERIES OF THE CAVE EXPLAINED--INGENIOUS DEVICE