"If you'll only wait, lads," said Redhand, "till Mr Bertram gits a new
flint into his pistol, we'll shoot the victim instead o' cutting him up.
It'll be quicker, you know."

"Hah! non," cried Gibault, leaping a few inches off the ground, under
the impulse of a new idea, "I vill show to you vat ve vill do. Ve vill
each cot hoff von finger. Redhand, he vill begin vid de thomb, et so on
till it come to me, and I vill cot hoff mine leetle finger. Each vill
devour the finger of de oder, an' so've shall have von dinner vidout
committing mordor--ha! vat say you?"

As Bertram had by this time arranged the lock of his pistol and reprimed
it, the hungry travellers resumed their weary march without coming to a
decision upon this delicate point.

It had happened that, during the last few days, the land over which they
travelled being somewhat barren, small game had become scarce, and the
large game could not be approached near enough to be shot with such
weapons as the artist's antiquated pistols; and as the party possessed
nothing better in the shape of a projectile, they had failed to procure
supplies. They had now, however, again reached a rich country, and had
succeeded in trapping a large wolf, under the skin of which Hawkswing
had made, as we have seen, an unsuccessful effort to shoot a buffalo.
Soon after this failure the party came to a ridge of gravelly soil that
stretched across the plain like a wave.

The plain, or small prairie, to which we refer was in the midst of a
most lovely scene. The earth was carpeted with rich green grass, in
which the wild flowers nestled like gems. The ground was undulating,
yet so varied in its formations that the waves and mounds did not
prevent the eyes of the travellers ranging over a vast tract of country,
even when they were down among the hollows; and, when they had ascended
the backs of the ridges, they could cast a wide glance over a scene of
mingled plain and wood, lake and river, such as is never seen except in
earth's remotest wilds, where man has not attempted to adorn the face of
nature with the exuberances of his own wonderful invention.

Far away on the horizon the jagged forms and snowy peaks of the Rocky
Mountains rose clear and sharp against the sky. For some days past the
trappers had sighted this stupendous "backbone" of the far west, yet so
slowly did they draw near that March Marston and Bertram, in their
impatience, almost believed they were a range of pha