ever recovered, and though there was one
in the family of MacClaskey, the youth had no claim upon it. He longed
for such a weapon, with a longing that it would be hard to understand.
The prize, therefore, was appreciated to its full value. He picked it up
with an embarrassed grin, which quickly became natural when he turned it
over in his hands and saw what an excellent piece it was.

"More than likely it belonged to a white man in the first place," said
Fred; "so it is right enough that it should come back to one of his own
race."

"It's loaded," said Terry, slightly raising the hammer and noticing the
powder in the pan. Then he brought the gun to his shoulder and pointing
it at the white trunk of the beech, which partly showed through the
intervening branches and undergrowth, he said:

"If the spalpeen should peep out from behind that tree, I'm thinkin' I
could hit him a harder blow than when I landed me two fists on his
mug."

"The Winnebago is a long ways off," said Deerfoot, with a shake of his
head; "he may meet my brother some day, but it will not be in this
place."

The young Shawanoe having learned all that was to be learned about his
young friends, now reached his hand in the breast of his hunting shirt
and drew out a small, closely-printed Bible, from between the leaves of
which he took a piece of paper that had been folded several times. He
glanced at the superscription, as if to make sure it was right, and then
handed it to Fred, who, as may be supposed, took it with astonishment.
He recognized the penciled writing as that of his father.

Parting the folds, he read the following:

MY DEAR FRED:

You know that when we left home there were three of us, Hardin,
Bowlby and myself. There are three of us still, but Bowlby
considers himself of no account for some weeks to come, because of
a hurt to his foot which will prevent his getting around for a long
time. Such being the case, I have concluded, now that I have the
chance, to send for you to join us. You are old enough and strong
enough to make a full hand, and you can give us good help. Since we
have all the animals, you will come afoot, but you will find no
trouble in keeping to the trail, which has been traveled often
enough to make it plain. It is no more than a hundred miles from
Greville to our camp at the foot of the Ozark Mountains, so you
ought to have no difficulty in reaching