disturbed by the feet of the buzzards--
the marks of whose claws were traceable in the red mud, as was that of
their beaks upon the eyeballs of the animal. All these were signs,
which the experience of a prairie campaign had taught me how to
interpret; and which the forest lore of my backwoods comrade also
enabled him to read. At the first question put to him, he comprehended
my meaning.

"How long think you since he was killed?" I asked, pointing to the dead
horse. "Ha! ye're right, stranger!" said he, perceiving the object of
the interrogatory. "I war slack not to think o' that. We kin easy find
out, I reck'n."

The hunter bent down over the carcass, so as to bring his eyes close to
the red gash in the neck. In this he placed the tips of his fingers,
and kept them there. He uttered not a word, but held his head slantwise
and steadfast, as if listening. Only for a few seconds did he remain in
this attitude; and then, as if suddenly satisfied with the examination,
he rose from his stooping posture, exclaiming as he stood erect:

"Good, by thunder! The old horse hain't been dead 'bove a kupple o'
hours. Look thar, stranger! the blood ain't froze? I kin a'most fancy
thar's heat in his old karkiss yet!"

"You are sure he has been killed this morning?"

"Quite sure o't; an' at most three, or may be four hour agone. See
thar!" he continued, raising one of the limbs, and letting it drop
again; "limber as a eel! Ef he'd a been dead last night, the leg'd been
stiff long afore this."

"Quite true," replied I, convinced, as was my companion, that the horse
had been slaughtered that morning.

This bit of knowledge was an important contribution towards fixing the
time of the departure. It told the _day_. The hour was of less
importance to our plans; though to that, by a further process of
reasoning, we were enabled to make a very near approximation. Holt must
have killed the horse before going off; and the act, as both of us
believed, could not have been accomplished at a very early hour. As far
as the sign enabled us to tell, not more than four hours ago; and
perhaps about two, before the time of my first arrival in the clearing.
Whether the squatter had left the ground immediately after the
performance of this rude sacrifice, it was impossible to tell. There
was no sign by which to determine the point; but the probability was,
that the deed was done just upon the eve of departure; and that the
slaught