might give, she bent over the kitten licking its wounds
and moaning. Suddenly she seemed to realise that it was dead, and
again threw her eyes up at us. I shall never forget the sight, for she
looked the perfect incarnation of hate. Her green eyes blazed with
lurid fire, and the white, sharp teeth seemed to almost shine through
the blood which dabbled her mouth and whiskers. She gnashed her teeth,
and her claws stood out stark and at full length on every paw. Then
she made a wild rush up the wall as if to reach us, but when the
momentum ended fell back, and further added to her horrible appearance
for she fell on the kitten, and rose with her black fur smeared with
its brains and blood. Amelia turned quite faint, and I had to lift her
back from the wall. There was a seat close by in shade of a spreading
plane-tree, and here I placed her whilst she composed herself. Then I
went back to Hutcheson, who stood without moving, looking down on the
angry cat below.

As I joined him, he said:

'Wall, I guess that air the savagest beast I ever see--'cept once when
an Apache squaw had an edge on a half-breed what they nicknamed
"Splinters" 'cos of the way he fixed up her papoose which he stole on
a raid just to show that he appreciated the way they had given his
mother the fire torture. She got that kinder look so set on her face
that it jest seemed to grow there. She followed Splinters mor'n three
year till at last the braves got him and handed him over to her. They
did say that no man, white or Injun, had ever been so long a-dying
under the tortures of the Apaches. The only time I ever see her smile
was when I wiped her out. I kem on the camp just in time to see
Splinters pass in his checks, and he wasn't sorry to go either. He was
a hard citizen, and though I never could shake with him after that
papoose business--for it was bitter bad, and he should have been a
white man, for he looked like one--I see he had got paid out in full.
Durn me, but I took a piece of his hide from one of his skinnin' posts
an' had it made into a pocket-book. It's here now!' and he slapped the
breast pocket of his coat.

Whilst he was speaking the cat was continuing her frantic efforts to
get up the wall. She would take a run back and then charge up,
sometimes reaching an incredible height. She did not seem to mind the
heavy fall which she get each time but started with renewed vigour;
and at every tumble her appearance became more horrible. Hutch