rkable for size--not so much in its
breadth as length, which last was not less than thirteen standard
inches!

On noting this peculiarity, my companion uttered an exclamation of
astonishment. "Thar's a fut, an' no mistake!" cried he. "I reck'n
'twar Long-legs as made them tracks. Well! ef I hedn't seed the man
hisself, I'd a swore thar war giants in these parts!"

I made no reply, though far more astonished than he. My astonishment
sprang from a different source; and was mixed up in my mind with some
old memories. _I remembered the foot_!

CHAPTER FORTY THREE.

TRACKING THE TRUNDLE.

Yes, I had seen that foot before; or one so very like it, that the
resemblance was cheating me. This could hardly be. With the exception
of its fellow, the foot of which I was thinking could have no
counterpart on the prairies: it must be the same? At first, my
recollections of it were but vague. I remembered the foot associated
with some ludicrous incidents; but what they were, or when and where
they had occurred, I could not say. Certainly I had seen it somewhere;
but where? No matter: the foot recalled no unpleasant associations. I
felt satisfied it was a _friendly_ one; and was now more anxious than
ever of overtaking its sesquipedalian owner.

After proceeding a short distance, the shoe-tracks again became too
indistinct to be followed farther. By quartering, however, we came upon
them once more--at a place where the impressions were deep and clearly
defined. Once more the immense foot rose upon the _retina_ of my
memory--this time more vividly--this time enabling me to _place_ it: for
I now remembered many an odd incident that had secured it a corner on
the page of my recollections. Sticking through a stirrup with an
enormous Mexican Spur on its heel--its owner mounted on a horse thin and
rawboned as himself--I remembered the foot, as well as the limbs and
body to which it was attached. Beyond a doubt, the tall fugitive we
were following was an old fellow campaigner--a veteran of the "Rifle
Rangers!"

The figure, as seen through the telescope, confirmed me in the belief.
The long limbs, arms, and neck--the thin, angular body--all were
characteristics of the bodily architecture of Jephthah Bigelow. I no
longer doubted that the taller of the two men was my old follower "Jeph
Bigelow," or "Sure-shot," as his Ranger comrades had christened him; and
appropriate was the designation--for a surer shot than Jeph n