ificant. Hastily approaching the fireplace, he lifted his rifle
from the cleets; and, dropping the piece upon its butt, commenced
loading it!

It was not the movement itself, so much as the time and manner, that
arrested my attention; and these declared the object of the act.
Neither for squirrel nor coon--deer, bear, nor panther--was that rifle
being loaded!

"Where are you going?" I inquired, seeing that he had taken down his
coon-skin cap, and slung on his pouch and powder-horn. "Only a bit down
the crik. You'll excuse me, stranger, for leavin' o' ye; but I'll be
back in the twinklin' o' an eye. Thar's a bit o' dinner for ye, if you
can eat cold deer-meat; an' you'll find somethin' in the old bottle
thar. I won't be gone more'n a hour. I reckon I won't."

The emphasis expressed a certain indecision, which I observed without
being able to interpret. I had my conjectures however.

"Can I not go with you?" I asked in hopes of drawing him to declare his
design. "The weather has cleared up; and I should prefer riding out, to
staying here alone. If it is not some business of a private nature--"

"Thar's nothin' particularly private about it, stranger; but it's a
bizness I don't want you to be mixed up in. I guess ye've got yur own
troubles now; 'ithout takin' share o' myen."

"If it is not rude, may I ask the business on which you're going?"

"Welcome to know it, stranger. I'm a-goin' _to kill Josh Stebbins_!"

"Kill Josh Stebbins?"

"Eyther that, or he shall kill me."

"Oh! nonsense!" I exclaimed, surprised less at the intention--which I
had already half divined--than at the cool determined tone in which it
was declared.

"I've said it, stranger! I've sworn it over an' over, an' it shell be
done. 'Taint no new notion I've tuk. I'd detarmined on makin' him
fight long ago: for I'd an old score to settle wi' him, afore that 'un
you know o'; but I niver ked got the skunk to stan' up. He allers tuk
care to keep out o' my way. Now I've made up my mind he don't dodge me
any longer; an', by the Etarnal! if that black-hearted snake's to be
foun' in the settlement--"

"He is not to be found in the settlement."

"Not to be foun' in the settlement!" echoed the hunter, in a tone that
betrayed both surprise and vexation--"not to be foun' in the settlement?
Surely you ain't in earnest, stranger? You seed him the day afore
yesterday!"

"True--but I have reason to think he is gone."

"God forbid! Bu