one cloud of tabacca
smoke."

"Alas! Gibault, we'll have to move off sooner than we expected, for
there it comes."

The two friends leaped up simultaneously, and, seizing their packs,
hurried down the mound, entered the thick bushes, and vanished.

The object whose sudden appearance had occasioned this abrupt departure
would, in truth, have been somewhat singular, not to say alarming, in
aspect, to those who did not know its nature. At a distance it looked
like one of those horrible antediluvian monsters one reads of, with a
lank body, about thirty feet long. It was reddish-yellow in colour, and
came on at a slow, crawling pace, its back appearing occasionally above
the underwood. Presently its outline became more defined, and it turned
out to be a canoe instead of an antediluvian monster, with Big Waller
and Bounce acting the part of legs to it. Old Redhand the trapper and
Hawkswing the Indian walked alongside, ready to relieve their comrades
when they should grow tired--for a large canoe is a heavy load for two
men--or to assist them in unusually bad places, or to support them and
prevent accidents, should they chance to stumble.

"Have a care now, lad, at the last step," said Redhand, who walked a
little in advance.

"Yer help would be better than yer advice, old feller," replied Bounce,
as he stepped upon the ridge or mound which Marston and his companion
had just quitted. "Lend a hand; we'll take a spell here. I do believe
my shoulder's out o' joint. There, gently--that's it."

"Wall, I guess this _is_ Eden," cried Big Waller, gazing around him with
unfeigned delight. "Leastwise, if it ain't, it must be the very nixt
location to them there diggins of old Father Adam. Ain't it
splendiferous?"

Big Waller was an out-and-out Yankee trapper. It is a mistake to
suppose that all Yankees "guess" and "calculate," and talk through their
nose. There are many who don't, as well as many who do; but certain it
is that Big Waller possessed all of these peculiarities in an alarming
degree. Moreover, he was characteristically thin and tall and sallow.
Nevertheless, he was a hearty, good-natured fellow, not given to
boasting so much as most of his class, but much more given to the
performance of daring deeds. In addition to his other qualities, the
stout Yankee had a loud, thundering, melodious voice, which he was fond
of using, and tremendous activity of body, which he was fond of
exhibiting.

He was quite