hing to eat
since breakfast."

"Then I'm glad I met you," said Philip warmly. "I will see that you have
a good supper. How long is it since you left New York?"

"About a week."

"What made you leave it?"

Henry Taylor hesitated, and finally answered, in a confused tone:

"I've run away from home. I wanted to go out West to kill Indians."

Philip stared at his new acquaintance in astonishment.

CHAPTER XL. THE INDIAN HUNTER.

Philip had lived so long in a country village that he had never chanced
to read any of those absorbing romances in which one boy, of tender
years, proves himself a match for a dozen Indians, more or less, and,
therefore, he was very much amazed at Henry Taylor's avowal that he was
going out West to kill Indians.

"What do you want to kill Indians for?" he asked, after an astonished
pause.

Now it was Henry's turn to be astonished.

"Every boy wants to kill Indians," he answered, looking pityingly at our
hero.

"What for? What good will it do?" asked Philip.

"It shows he's brave," answered his new friend. "Didn't you ever read
the story of 'Bully Bill'; or, The Hero of the Plains'?"

"I never heard of it," said Philip.

"You must have lived in the woods, then," said Henry Taylor, rather
contemptuously. "It's a tip-top story. Bully Bill was only fourteen, and
killed ever so many Indians--twenty or thirty, I guess--as well as a lot
of lions and bears. Oh, he must have had lots of fun!"

"Why didn't the Indians kill him?" asked Philip, desirous of being
enlightened. "They didn't stand still and let him kill them, did they?"

"No; of course not. They fought awful hard."

"How did one young boy manage to overcome so many Indians?"

"Oh, you'll have to read the story to find out! Bully Bill was a great
hero, and everybody admired him."

"So you wanted to imitate his example?" asked Philip.

"To be sure I did."

"How did you happen to get out of money?"

"Well," said Henry, "you see me and another boy got awful excited after
reading the story, and both concluded nothing could make us so happy as
to go out West together, and do as Bill did. Of course, it was no use to
ask the old man--"

"The old man?" queried Philip.

"The gov'nor--father, of course! So we got hold of some money--"

"You got hold of some money?" queried Philip.

"That's what I said, didn't I?" rejoined Henry irritably.

"Yes."

"Then what's the use of repeating it?"

Philip intended to ask wh