d had to do to his shirt before extracting the arrow, as it
caused the poor fellow too much pain to pull it off--while the other
went on with his yarn.

"Thaar ain't much to tell," began Seth. "I an' Sailor Bill beat up the
bush alongside that ther stream, arter partin' with you, and then, when
we seed nothin' thaar, made tracks for this yere paraira, as I
diskivered, when I got to the top o' that risin' ground yonder, some elk
a feedin' down hyar. There was a herd of seven of 'em or more, an' soon
as I gets near enuf I lets drive at 'em; and just then, hullabaloo! I
heart a screech like somethin' awful, an' a Injun starts up, just like a
deer a walkin' on his hind legs."

"That's an artful dodge they have of putting on the skin of some animal,
and approaching unsuspiciously within shooting range without alarming
their game."

"Waal, this hyar Injun," continued Seth, without noticing Mr Rawlings'
explanatory interruption, "rushed on to me like a mad bull in fly time,
and seein' as how he meant bizness; I drawed the trigger again, but
missed him, and he flung his tommyhawk, which cotched my fut, and
brought me to the ground as slick as greased lightnin', you bet!"

"And gave you a bad wound, too," said Mr Rawlings, who by this time had
managed to take off Seth's boot and disclose the extent of the injury, a
pretty deep cut right across the instep, which would probably lame the
ex-mate for life, as far as he could judge.

"Waal, it do hurt some," said Seth, when Mr Rawlings proceeded to
bandage up the foot in the same way as he had done the poor fellow's
side previously. "But I dersay I'll git over it soon, gineral. Ef I
seed Sailor Bill agin I wouldn't care a cent about it, I guess!"

"How was it that they carried him off, and you escaped alive? I can't
think how they let you off when you were once down and at their mercy?"

"Oh, I made a pretty good fit of it, I reckon, with the butt-end of my
rifle, and giv' both them red devils somethin' to remember Seth Allport
by!--For there was two on 'em at me, as soon as Sailor Bill rushed in
atween me an' the fust Injun."

"Did the boy really help you?" said Mr Rawlings in some surprise; for,
as has been previously related, Sailor Bill had never exhibited any
trace of emotional feeling from the time of his being picked up at sea,
save on that memorable occasion immediately afterwards, when, it may be
remembered, he rushed out of the cabin when the ship was taken ab