over; and yet there was nothing to shoot at. Suddenly the
noise ceased. I was still staring toward the spot where it had last
sounded when a calm voice behind me called out:

"They're after you."

It was Shelby Cousin, with the hate of the border making his young face
very hard and cruel.

"I've been scouting 'em," he informed me. "I seen you take to the side o'
this ridge. I seen 'em streamin' down the trace. They picked up your trail
mighty smart. Now they're scattered all along behind you."

I opened the roll of buckskin and disclosed the terrible trophies. He
straightened and threw his head back, and for a moment stood with his eyes
closed, his slight figure trembling violently. Then he fiercely
whispered:

"How'd you git these from the devils?"

There was an expectant glare in his gaze. I showed him the hair of the
Shawnee.

"Good! Good!" he repeated exultantly as he gloated over the repulsive
thing. Then gloomily:

"But why couldn't I 'a' took it? Luck's been ag'in' me for days. Found a
burned cabin after I quit you on the Cheat, an' 'lowed to ambush the party
when they made for the Ohio. 'Stead o' goin' to their villages they fooled
me by strikin' across to here. Now they've made this kill! Who be they?"

"The Grisdols. Only a short distance from here. Two men and the two
children. No women. I knew them. I must go there and bury them and these
scalps."

"I'll help," he mumbled. "I ain't heard no discovery-yell yet. They're
still huntin' for your signs along this ridge." Trailing his double-barrel
rifle, he took the lead and began a diagonal descent to the trace I had
abandoned. I murmured a protest, but he assured me:

"They're all behind us. We can make quicker time in the trace. They'll hop
on to your trail sure's shootin'. Speed is what we hanker for."

His woodcraft was remarkable. He seemed to possess the gift of seeing that
which was concealed. With a glance he would observe land formations and
the nature of the growth, and confidently circle a heavy grove and tell me
what would be the nature of the traveling beyond, and whether wet or dry.

"We could slide down into the trace in a minute any time, but I don't want
to take to it till we round the bend ahead; then we'll be out o' sight o'
the reds strung along the ridge."

He had halted as he explained this and I was almost abreast of him, and he
startled me by whipping up his rifle and firing. As the shot rang out he
rejoiced:

"One!"