a odd sort o' a critter he wur, an no mistake; he us't to go pokin
about, gatherin' weeds an' all sorts o' green garbitch, an' spreadin'
'em out atween sheets o' paper--whet he called button-eyesin--jest like
thet ur Dutch doctur as wur rubbed out when we went into the Navagh
country, t'other side o' the Grand."

"I remembers him."

"Wal, this hyur fellur I tell 'ee about, he us't to talk mighty big o'
this, thet, an t' other; an he palavered a heap 'bout a thing thet, ef I
don't disremember, wur called _spuntainyus kumbuxshun_."

"I've heerd o' 't; that are the name."

"Wal, the button-eyeser, he sayed thet a paraira mout take afire o'
itself, 'ithout anybody whatsomdiver heving sot it. Now, thet ur's what
this child don't b'lieve, nohow. In coorse, I knows thet lightnin'
sometimes may sot a paraira a bleezin', but lightnin's a natral fire o'
itself; an it's only reezunible to expect thet the dry grass wud catch
from _it_ like punk; but I shed like to know how fire kud kindle 'ithout
somethin to kindle it--thet's whet I shed like to know."

"I don't believe it can," rejoined Garey.

"Ne'er a bit o' it. I never seed a burnin' paraira yit, thet thur
wa'n't eyther a camp-fire or a Injun at the bottom o' it--thet ur
'ceptin whur lightnin hed did the bizness."

"And you think, Rube, thar's been Injun at the bottom o' this?"

"Putty nigh sure; an I'll gie you my reezuns. Fust, do 'ee see thur's
been no lightnin this mornin to 'a made the fire? Seconds, it's too fur
west hyur for any settlement o' whites--in coorse I speak o' Texans--
thur might be Mexikins; them I don't call white, nohow-nosomediver. An
then, agin, it kin scace be Mexikins neyther. It ur too fur no'th for
any o' the yellur-bellies to be a straying jest now, seein as it's _the
Mexikin moon_ wi' the kimanchees, an both them an the Leepans ur on the
war-trail. Wal, then, it's clur thur's no Mexikin 'bout hyur to hev sot
the paraira afire, an thur's been no lightnin to do it; thurfor, it must
'a been did eyther by a Injun, or thet ur dodrotted spuntainyus
kumbuxshun."

"One or t'other."

"Wal, being as this child don't b'lieve in the kumbuxshun nohow,
thurfore it's my opeenyun thet red Injuns did the bizness--_they_ did
sartint."

"No doubt of it," assented Garey.

"An ef they did," continued the old trapper, "thur about yit some whur
not fur off, an we've got to keep a sharp look-out for our har--thet's
what _we_ hev."

"Safe, we have,"