unter being that far-famed and ferocious individual, that his
thoughts only took the form of the mental question, "I wonder if the
Wild Man o' the West could beat such a fellow as that at a fair stand-up
fight?" So powerfully did this thought affect him, that he could not
refrain from exclaiming--

"I say, Dick, did you ever hear of the Wild Man of the West?"

Dick was so much tickled by the question that his angry mood vanished,
and, turning towards his guest with a smile, while his blue eyes seemed
milder than they ever had appeared before, he said--

"Yes, lad, I've heard of him."

"Have you seen him?" continued March eagerly.

"I have, many a time."

"What is he like?"

"He's like me," replied Dick with another smile, the softness of which
would have driven March to an immeasurable distance from the truth, had
he ever been near it.

"Like _you_! Oh, I suppose you mean he's something about your size.
Well, I don't wonder at that, for you're an uncommonly big fellow, Dick;
but I fancy his appearance is very different."

"Well, no. He's got light hair and blue eyes, like me."

This was a poser to March. It was so totally subversive of all his
preconceived ideas, that it reduced him for some moments to silence.

"Isn't he hairy all over, like a fox, and very ugly?" inquired March,
recovering from his surprise.

This was a poser, in turn, to the Wild Man. To be called upon suddenly
to pronounce an opinion on his own looks was embarrassing, to say the
least of it.

"He's not exactly hairy all over," said Dick after a moment's thought,
"though it can't be denied he's got plenty of hair on his head and
chin--like me. As for his looks, lad, it ain't easy to say whether he's
ugly or pritty, for men don't agree on sich pints, d'ye see?"

"Do sit down beside me, Dick, and tell me about this Wild Man," said
March earnestly. "You can't fancy how anxious I am to see him. I've
come here for that very purpose. No doubt I've come to shoot and trap,
too, but chiefly to see the Wild Man o' the West. An' isn't it
provokin'? I might have seen him some weeks agone, if I hadn't bin
stunned with a fall jist as he came jumpin' into the middle o' us like a
clap o' thunder--"

"What, lad," interrupted Dick, "was it _you_ that I--"

Just at this moment Dick was seized with a very violent fit of coughing,
which, coming as it did from such a capacious chest and so powerful a
pair of lungs, caused the roof of the cav