than this sled'll be goin' by the time it gits to where the bank
pitches into the lake; and ef ye should git a leetle careless in yer
steerin', Bill, and hit a stump, I conceit that nothin' but the help
of the Lord or the rottenness of the stump would save ye from
etarnity."

Now, Wild Bill was blessed with a sanguine temperament. To him no
obstacle seemed serious if bravely faced. Indeed, his natural
confidence in himself bordered on recklessness, to which the drinking
habits of his life had, perhaps, contributed.

When the Trapper had finished speaking, Bill ran his eye carelessly
down the steep hillside, smooth and shiny as polished steel, and said,
"Oh, this isn't anything extry for a hill. I've steered a good many
steeper ones, and in nights when the moon was at the half, and the
sled overloaded at that. It don't make any difference how fast you
go," he added, "if you only keep in the path, and don't hit anything."

"That's it, that's it," replied the Trapper. "But the trouble here be
to keep in the path, fur, in the fust place, there isn't any path, and
the stumps be pretty thick, and I doubt ef ye can line a trail from
here to the bank by the lake without one or more sudden twists in it,
and a twist in the trail, goin' as fast as we'll be goin', has got to
be taken jediciously, or somethin' will happen. I say, Bill, what
p'int will ye steer fur?"

Wild Bill, thus addressed, proceeded to give his opinion touching the
proper direction of the flight they were to make. Indeed, he had been
closely examining the ground while the Trapper was speaking, and
therefore gave his opinion promptly and with confidence.

"Ye have chosen the course with jedgment," said the old man
approvingly, after he had studied the line his companion pointed out
critically for a moment. "Yis, Bill, ye have a nateral eye for the
business, and I sartinly have more confidence in ye than I had a minit
ago, when ye was talkin' about a steeper hill than this; fur this hill
drops mighty sudden in the pitches, and the crust be smooth as ice,
and the sled'll go like a streak when it gits started. But the course
ye've p'inted out be a good un, fur there be only one bad turn in it,
and good steerin' orter put a sled round that. I say," continued the
old man, turning toward his companion, and pointing out the crook in
the course at the bottom of the second dip, "can ye swing around that
big stump there without upsettin', when ye come to it?"

"Sw