for his gun, as if he had heard something.

"No. Didn't you see that squirrel shucking a hazel nut on that rock
there, just afore we came in?" said the other.

"A bushy-tailed gray? Yes, seed him scamper up a saplin."

"Wal, don't you know that if they had a bin hereabouts, a squirrel
wouldn't a sot down there to shuck a nut?"

"Right! You've been among Injins so long that you know more about them
than they do themselves."

"Wal, what I don't know about an Injin no one don't know. They've gone
for grub, and will come back at sun-down."

"Come back here at sun-down?"

"Don't you see the skins there? Whar kin they sleep? They'll come afore
dark, for even an Injin can't climb these rocks after dark. And when the
gal's in camp, and that feller fixed--eh? eh?" And he tapped and rattled
the manacles.

"Eh? eh? old Toppy?" and the two men poked each other in the ribs, and
looked the very villains that they were.

"But let's see what they've got here. Two tiger-skins, an old moccasin
and a tomahawk;" he looked at the handle and read the name, JOHN LOGAN;
"Guess I'll hide that," said the agent, as he kicked the skins about,
and then stuck the tomahawk up under his belt. "Guess that's about all."

"Guess that's about all!" sneered the other; "that's about all you know
about Injuns. Allers got your nose to the ground, too. Look here!" And
the man, who had been walking about and looking up in the trees, here
drew down a bundle from the boughs of a fir.

"Well, I'll swar! ef you can't find things where a coon dog couldn't!"

"Find things!" exclaimed the other, as he prepared to examine the
contents of the bundle; "all you've got to do is to look into a fir-tree
in an Injun's camp. You see, bugs and things won't climb a fir gum;
nothing but a red-bellied squirrel will go up a fir gum, for fear of
sticking in the wax; and even a squirrel won't, if there is a string
tied around, for fear of a trap. Wal, there is the string. So you see an
Injun's _cache_ is as safe up a fir-tree as under lock and key. Ah,
they're awful short of grub. Look thar! Been gnawing that bone, and
they've put that away for their suppers, I swar!"

"Wal, the grub is short, eh? They'll be rather thin, I'm thinking."

The other did not notice this remark, but throwing the bundle aside, he
rose up and went back to the tree.

"By the beardy Moses! Look thar!" and the man looked about as if half
frightened, and then held up a bottle.

"Whisky?" aske