r; so I
advised Mary--an' that's how she come to git the name.

"Adam an' me was always together. We suited each other. For myself, I
had ta'en a skunner at mankind, an' womankind, too; so we lived wi' the
Pawnees, and hunted together, an' slep' together when out on the tramp.
But one o' them reptiles took a spite at him, an' tried by every way he
could to raise the Injuns agin' him, but couldn't; so he detarmined to
murder him.

"One day we was out huntin' together, an', being too far from the Pawnee
lodges to return that night, we encamped in the wood, an' biled our
kettle--this iron one ye see here. Adam had a kind o' likin' for't, and
always carried it at his saddle-bow when he went out o' horseback. We'd
just begun supper, when up comes the Wild-Cat, as he was called--Adam's
enemy--an' sits down beside us.

"Of course, we could not say we thought he was up to mischief, though we
suspected it, so we gave him his supper, an' he spent the night with us.
Nixt mornin' he bade us good-day, an' went off. Then Adam said he
would go an' set beaver traps in a creek about a mile off. Bein' lazy
that day, I said I'd lie a bit in the camp. So away he went. The camp
was on a hill. I could see him all the way, and soon saw him in the
water settin' his traps.

"Suddenly I seed the Wild-Cat step out o' the bushes with a bow an'
arrow. I knew what was up. I gave a roar that he might have heard ten
miles off, an' ran towards them. But an arrow was in Adam's back before
he could git to the shore. In a moment more he had the Injun by the
throat, an' the two struggled for life. Adam could ha' choked him easy,
but the arrow in his back let out the blood fast, an' he could barely
hold his own. Yet he strove like a true man. I was soon there, for I
nearly burst my heart in that race. They were on the edge of the water.
The Wild-Cat had him down, and was tryin' to force him over the bank.

"I had my big sword wi' me, an' hewed the reptile's head off with it at
one blow, sendin' it into the river, an' tossin' the body in after it.

"`It's too late,' says Adam, as I laid him softly on the bank.

"I could see that. The head of the shaft was nearly in his heart. He
tried to speak, but could only say, `Take care o' my wife an' Mary'--
then he died, and I buried him there."

Dick paused, and clenched both hands convulsively as the thought of that
black day came back upon him. But the glare in his eye soon melted into