id Joe,
depositing the lump of gold in his pocket.

"See here, my chap," said Sneak, rising up and casting a furious
glance at him, "if you don't mean to hand that out again, one or the
t'other of us must be put in the ground with the traitorious
Posin--and if it is to be you, it'll be a purty thing for it to be
said that you brought a spade to bury yourself with."

"Didn't I find the body?" said Joe.

"But burn me if you found the gold," said Sneak.

"Shall I decide the matter?" interposed Roughgrove.

"I'm willing," said Sneak.

"And so am I," replied Joe.

"Then give it to me, and I'll cut it in two, and give a half to each
of you," said Roughgrove.

The decision was final; and seizing the spades, Joe, Sneak, and the
oarsmen began to prepare a resting-place for the dead body. Boone
continued silent, with his eyes steadfastly gazing at the earth which
the workmen began to throw up.

"Posin's done ferrying now," said Dan Rudder, one of the defunct's old
companions in the service of Roughgrove.

"No he ain't," said Sneak, throwing up a spadeful of flint stones.

"I'll keep some of these for my musket," said Joe.

"Why ain't he?" demanded Dan.

"Because he's got to cross the river--the river--what do they call
it?--the river Poles," said Sneak.

"Styx, you dunce," said Joe.

"Well, 'twas only a slip of the tongue--what's the difference between
poles and sticks?"

"_You_ never read any thing about it; you only heard somebody say so,"
said Joe, pausing to listen to the hounds that ever and anon yelped in
the vicinity.

"If I didn't, I don't believe the man that wrote that book ever
crossed, or even had a squint at the river himself," replied Sneak.

"Whereabouts is the river?" asked Dan.

"In the lower regions," said Joe, striking his spade against a hard
substance.

"What's that you're scraping the dirt off of?" asked Sneak.

"Oh, my goodness!" cried Joe, leaping out of the grave.

"Let it remain!" said Boone, in a commanding tone, looking in and
discovering a skull; "I once buried a friend here--he was shot down at
my side by the Indians."

"Fill up the hole agin! Posin shan't lay on top of any of your
friends!" exclaimed Sneak, likewise leaping out of the grave.

"It matters not--but do as you please," said Boone, turning away and
marking the distressed yelping of the hounds, which indicated, from
some unusual cause, that they did not enjoy the chase as much as was
their wont.

"Split