ous to play the part of a private, and all
had come prepared to discharge the duties of the expedition, to the
utmost of their ability. But they were all young men, and no one felt
competent to take the responsibility of command.

They were standing in a group, consulting eagerly about their course,
and, as one of them afterward said, "nearly at their wits' end," when
the circle was suddenly entered by another. He had come upon them so
noiselessly, and they had been so much absorbed in their council, that
no one saw him until he stood in their midst. Several of them, however,
at once recognised him, as a hunter who had recently appeared in the
southern part of the county, and had lived a singularly solitary life.
No one knew his name, but, from his mode of life, he was already known
among those who had heard of him, as "the wild hunter." He was but
little above the medium height, and rather slender in figure; but he was
well and firmly built, and immediately impressed them with the idea of
great hardihood and activity. His face, though bronzed by exposure, was
still handsome and expressive; but there was a certain wildness in the
eye, and a compression about the mouth, which gave it the expression of
fierceness, as well as resolution. He was dressed in a hunting-shirt and
"leggings" of deer-skin, fringed or "fingered" on the edges; and his
head and feet were covered, the one by a cap of panther's hide, and the
others by moccasins of dressed buckskin. At his belt hung a long knife,
and in his hand he carried a heavy "Kentucky rifle."

As he entered the circle, he dropped the breech of the latter to the
ground, and, leaning calmly upon the muzzle, quietly surveyed the
countenances of the group, in profound silence. The regulators were too
much surprised to speak while this was going on; and the stranger seemed
to be in no haste to open the conversation. When he had finished his
scrutiny, however, he stepped back a pace or two, and resuming his easy
attitude, addressed them:--

"You must pardon me, my friends," he commenced, "when I tell you, that I
have overheard all you have said in the last half hour. I did not remain
in that thicket, however, for the purpose of eaves-dropping; but having
accidentally heard one of you mention a name, the sound of which touches
a chord whose vibrations you can not understand, I remained, almost
against my own will, to learn more. I thus became acquainted with the
object of your meeting