composure. "He wants
to face us out of sight and reason, and make us think the head of a
red-skin is a stone covered with the autumn leaf; or he has some other
devilish artifice in his mind!"

"Is the animal human?" demanded the Doctor, "of the genus homo? I had
fancied it a non-descript."

"It's as human, and as mortal too, as a warrior of these prairies is
ever known to be. I have seen the time when a red-skin would have shown
a foolish daring to peep out of his ambushment in that fashion on a
hunter I could name, but who is too old now, and too near his time, to
be any thing better than a miserable trapper. It will be well to speak
to the imp, and to let him know he deals with men whose beards are
grown. Come forth from your cover, friend," he continued, in the
language of the extensive tribes of the Dahcotahs; "there is room on the
prairie for another warrior."

The eyes appeared to glare more fiercely than ever, but the mass which,
according to the trapper's opinion, was neither more nor less than a
human head, shorn, as usual among the warriors of the west, of its hair,
still continued without motion, or any other sign of life.

"It is a mistake!" exclaimed the doctor. "The animal is not even of the
class, mammalia, much less a man."

"So much for your knowledge!" returned the trapper, laughing with great
exultation. "So much for the l'arning of one who has look'd into so many
books, that his eyes are not able to tell a moose from a wild-cat! Now
my Hector, here, is a dog of education after his fashion, and, though
the meanest primmer in the settlements would puzzle his information, you
could not cheat the hound in a matter like this. As you think the object
no man, you shall see his whole formation, and then let an ignorant
old trapper, who never willingly pass'd a day within reach of a
spelling-book in his life, know by what name to call it. Mind, I mean no
violence; but just to start the devil from his ambushment."

The trapper very deliberately examined the priming of his rifle, taking
care to make as great a parade as possible of his hostile intentions, in
going through the necessary evolutions with the weapon. When he thought
the stranger began to apprehend some danger, he very deliberately
presented the piece, and called aloud--

"Now, friend, I am all for peace, or all for war, as you may say. No!
well it is no man, as the wiser one, here, says, and there can be no
harm in just firing into a bunch