ought down; but yez ain't the first he fired at--but whist,
Tim, don't be telling your secrets, for somebody else might larn them."

He now began making his way carefully down the gorge in order to ascend
upon the opposite side and secure his prize. He had no thought that the
report of his gun could reach the ears of hostile persons, and he did
not heed anything except the place and manner in which he put his feet
in going down and up the ravine.

After no little toiling he reached the dead body, and found that he had
shot a rather small black-tailed deer. It was in middling condition, and
was the very prize he was anxious to secure for his hungry self and
equally hungry friends.

As he stood admiring it, for the first time the thought of personal
danger crossed his mind, and he glanced hurriedly around him, but saw
nothing to occasion alarm. Then he leaned forward and gazed down the
gorge, and as he did so he descried three Indians looking up the side of
the chasm. Slight as was the distance his head projected, it was seen by
them, and he only drew it back to escape the effect of three discharges
of their guns.

"And that is your shtyle of saluting a gintleman is it?" said Tim in
some trepidation. "But yez has a forcible way of saying 'how do yez do,'
in this counthry, that a stranger would do well to imitate."

The Irishman hastily debated with himself upon the best plan to pursue
to escape the serious peril that threatened him, for he was sure the
savages would follow up their shot.

"The best thing I can do is to lave," he concluded. "There is strong
raison for belaving that I've given some one slight offinse by walking
into their house without ringing the bell."

He stooped over and lifted his game. He found its weight somewhat less
than he had suspected.

"I have no objiction to your going wid me. If I has to have the same
dispute about ivery deer I tips over, I may as well hang on to the fust
one."

Slinging it over his shoulder, he began his return with the carcass. It
proved beneficial to him in a way that he had little suspected. Not
wishing to go any further down the gorge, where there was reason to fear
a collision with the savages, he clambered still higher, taking great
care to shield himself from observation from below.

This made his labor excessive, and he was often obliged to pause and
rest himself. But at length he reached what might be termed the brow of
the hill, and began making his way