away; they can't travel through the
slush when the crust is melted off."

"That's as true as print," replied Sneak; and if none of 'em follered
us back to the settlement, we needn't look for 'em agin till spring."

"I wonder if any of them _did_ follow us?" asked Joe, pausing
abruptly.

"How can anybody tell till they see 'em?" replied Sneak. "What're you
stopping for?"

"I'm going back," said Joe.

"Dod--you're a fool--that's jest what you are. Hain't We got our guns?
and if there _is_ any about, ain't they in the bushes close to Mr.
Glenn's house? and hain't we passed through 'em long ago? But I don't
keer any thing about your cowardly company--go back, if you want to,"
said Sneak, striding onward.

"Sneak, don't go so fast. I haven't any notion of going back," said
Joe, springing nimbly to his companion's side.

"I believe you're afeard to go back by yourself," said Sneak, laughing
heartily.

"Pshaw, Sneak, I don't think any of 'em followed us, do you?"
continued Joe, peering at the bushes and trees in the valley, which
they were entering.

"No," said Sneak; "I only wanted to skeer you a bit."

"I've killed too many savages to be scared by them now," said Joe,
carelessly striding onward.

"What was you a going back for, if you wasn't skeered?"

"I wonder what always makes you think I'm frightened when I talk of
going into the house! Sneak, you're _always_ mistaken. I wasn't
thinking about myself--I only wanted to put Mr. Glenn on his guard."

"Then what made you tell that wapper for, the other night, about
cutting that Indian's throat?"

"How do you know it was a wapper?" asked Joe, somewhat what
embarrassed by Sneak's home-thrust.

"Bekaise, don't I know that I cut his juggler-vein myself? Didn't the
blood gush all over me? and didn't he fall down dead before he had
time to holler?" continued Sneak, with much warmth and earnestness.

"Sneak," said Joe, "I've no doubt you thought he was dead--but then
you must know it's nearly as hard to kill a man as a cat. You might
have been mistaken; every body is liable to be deceived--even a
person's eyes deceive him sometimes. I don't pretend to say that I
haven't been mistaken before now, myself. It _may_ be possible that I
was mistaken about the Indian as well as you--I might have just
_thought_ I saw him move. But I was there longer than you, and the
inference is that I didn't stand as good a chance to be deceived."

"Well, I can't answer all that," s