e latter
proved that life had not yet entirely abandoned the hapless victim when
he entered the brake. The opinion now became general, that the youth
had received his death-wound in the open prairie, and had dragged
his enfeebled form into the cover of the thicket for the purpose of
concealment. A trail through the bushes confirmed this opinion. It also
appeared, on examination, that a desperate struggle had taken place on
the very margin of the thicket. This was sufficiently apparent by the
trodden branches, the deep impressions on the moist ground, and the
lavish flow of blood.

"He has been shot in the open ground and come here for a cover," said
Abiram; "these marks would clearly prove it. The boy has been set upon
by the savages in a body, and has fou't like a hero as he was, until
they have mastered his strength, and then drawn him to the bushes."

To this probable opinion there was now but one dissenting voice, that of
the slow-minded Ishmael, who demanded that the corpse itself should be
examined in order to obtain a more accurate knowledge of its injuries.
On examination, it appeared that a rifle bullet had passed directly
through the body of the deceased, entering beneath one of his brawny
shoulders, and making its exit by the breast. It required some knowledge
in gun-shot wounds to decide this delicate point, but the experience of
the borderers was quite equal to the scrutiny; and a smile of wild, and
certainly of singular satisfaction, passed among the sons of Ishmael,
when Abner confidently announced that the enemies of Asa had assailed
him in the rear.

"It must be so," said the gloomy but attentive squatter. "He was of too
good a stock and too well trained, knowingly to turn the weak side to
man or beast! Remember, boys, that while the front of manhood is to
your enemy, let him be who or what he may, you ar' safe from cowardly
surprise. Why, Eester, woman! you ar' getting beside yourself; with
picking at the hair and the garments of the child! Little good can you
do him now, old girl."

"See!" interrupted Enoch, extricating from the fragments of cloth the
morsel of lead which had prostrated the strength of one so powerful;
"here is the very bullet!"

Ishmael took it in his hand and eyed it long and closely.

"There's no mistake," at length he muttered through his compressed
teeth. "It is from the pouch of that accursed trapper. Like many of the
hunters he has a mark in his mould, in order to know t