"Ha, ha!" interrupted the botanist, with a loud laugh; "you is not the first what t"ink hims nonsense. But you mus" know dere be moche sense in it,"--(he looked very grave and wise here)--"very moche. First, ye finds him; den ye squeezes an" dries him; den ye sticks him in von book, an" names him; den ye talks about him; oh! dere is moche use in him, very moche!"
"Well, but arter you"ve found, an" squeezed, an" dried, an" stuck, an"
named, an" talked about him," repeated Paul, with a slight look of contempt, "what the better are ye for it all?"
"Vy, ve is moche de better," returned the botanist, "for den ve tries to find out all about him. Ve magnifies him, an" writes vat ve zee about him, an" compares him vid oders of de same family, an" boils, an" stews, an" fries, an" melts, an" dissolves, an" mixes him, till ve gits somet"ing out of him."
"It"s little I"d expect to git out of him after tratin" him so badly,"
remarked Flinders, whose hunger was gradually giving way before the influence of venison steaks.
"True, me frund," returned the stranger, "it is ver" leetil ve gits; but den dat leetil is ver" goot--valooable you calls it."
"Humph!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Bevan, with an air that betokened doubt. Flinders and Fred said nothing, but the latter felt more than ever inclined to believe that their guest was a deceiver, and resolved to watch him narrowly. On his part, the stranger seemed to perceive that Fred suspected him, but he was not rendered less hearty or free-and-easy on that account.
In the course of conversation Paul chanced to refer to Betty.
"Ah! me frund," said the stranger, "has you brought you"s vife to dis vile contry!"
"No, I haven"t," replied Paul, bluntly.
"Oh, pardon. I did t"ink you spoke of Bettie; an surely dat is vooman"s name?"
"Ay, but Betty"s my darter, not my wife," returned Paul, who resented this inquisition with regard to his private affairs.
"Is you not "fraid," said the botanist, quietly helping himself to a marrow-bone, "to leave you"s darter at Simpson"s Gully?"
"Who told you I left her there?" asked Bevan, with increasing asperity.
"Oh! I only t"ink so, as you"s come from dere."
"An" why should I be afraid?"
"Because, me frund, de contry be full ob scoundrils."
"Yes, an" you are one of the biggest of them," thought Fred Westly, but he kept his thoughts to himself, while Paul muttered something about being well protected, and having no occasion to be afraid.
Perceiving the subject to be distasteful, the stranger quickly changed it. Soon afterwards each man, rolling himself in his blanket, went to sleep--or appeared to do so. In regard to Paddy Flinders, at least, there could be no doubt, for the trombone-tones of his nose were eloquent. Paul, too, lay on his back with eyes tight shut and mouth wide open, while the regular heaving of his broad chest told that his slumbers were deep. But more than once Fred Westly raised his head gently and looked suspiciously round. At last, in his case also, tired Nature a.s.serted herself, and his deep regular breathing proved that the "sweet restorer" was at work, though an occasional movement showed that his sleep was not so profound as that of his comrades.
The big botanist remained perfectly motionless from the time he lay down, as if the sleep of infancy had pa.s.sed with him into the period of manhood. It was not till the fire had died completely down, and the moon had set, leaving only the stars to make darkness visible, that he moved. He did so, not as a sleeper awaking, but with the slow stealthy action of one who is already wide awake and has a purpose in view.
Gradually his huge shoulders rose till he rested on his left elbow.
A sense of danger, which had never left him even while he slept, aroused Fred, but he did not lose his self-possession. He carefully watched, from the other side of the extinct fire, the motions of the stranger, and lay perfectly still--only tightening his grasp on the knife-handle that he had been instinctively holding when he dropped asleep.
The night was too dark for Fred to distinguish the man"s features. He could only perceive the outline of his black figure, and that for some time he rested on his elbow without moving, as if he were contemplating the stars. Despite his efforts to keep awake, Fred felt that drowsiness was again slowly, but surely, overcoming him. Maintaining the struggle, however, he kept his dreamy eyes riveted on their guest until he seemed to swell into gigantic proportions.
Presently Fred was again thoroughly aroused by observing that the right arm of the man moved slowly upwards, and something like a knife appeared in the hand; he even fancied he saw it gleam, though there was not light enough to render that possible.
Feeling restrained, as if under the horrible influence of nightmare, Fred lay there spell-bound and quite unable to move, until he perceived the stranger"s form bend over in the direction of Paul Bevan, who lay on the other side of him.
Then, indeed, Fred"s powers returned. Shouting, "look out, Paul!" he sprang up, drew his bowie-knife, and leaped over the blackened logs, but, to his surprise and confusion, found that the stranger lay extended on the ground as if sound asleep. He roused himself, however, and sat up, as did the others, on hearing Fred"s shout.
"Fat is wrong, yoong man?" he inquired, with a look of sleepy surprise.
"Ye may well ax that, sor," said Flinders, staggering to his feet and seizing his axe, which always lay handy at his side. Paul had glanced round sharply, like a man inured to danger, but seeing nothing to alarm him, had remained in a sitting position.
"Why, Westly, you"ve been dreaming," he said with a broad grin.
"So I must have been," returned the youth, looking very much ashamed, "but you"ve no notion what a horrible dream I had. It seemed so real, too, that I could not help jumping up and shouting. Pardon me, comrades, and, as bad boys say when caught in mischief, `I won"t do it again!""
"Ve pardon you, by all means," said the botanist stretching himself and yawning, "and ve do so vid de more pleasure for you has rouse us in time for start on de joorney."
"You"re about right. It"s time we was off," said Paul, rising slowly to his feet and looking round the horizon and up at the sky, while he proceeded to fill a beloved little black pipe, which invariably const.i.tuted his preliminary little breakfast.
Pat Flinders busied himself in blowing up the embers of the fire.
A slight and rapidly eaten meal sufficed to prepare these hardy backwoodsmen for their journey, and, long before daybreak illumined the plains, they were far on their way towards the Sawback mountain range.
During the journey of two days, which this trip involved, the botanist seemed to change his character to some extent. He became silent--almost morose; did not encourage the various efforts made by his companions to draw him into conversation, and frequently rode alone in advance of the party, or occasionally fell behind them.
The day after the stranger had joined them, as they were trotting slowly over the plains that lay between the Rangers Hill and the Sawbacks, Fred rode close up to Bevan, and said in a low voice, glancing at the botanist, who was in advance--
"I am convinced, Paul, that he is a scoundrel."
"That may be so, Mr Fred, but what then?"
"Why, then I conclude that he is deceiving us for some purpose of his own."
"Nonsense," replied Bevan, who was apt to express himself bluntly, "what purpose can he serve in deceiving strangers like us! We carry no gold-dust and have nothing worth robbing us of, even if he were fool enough to think of attemptin" such a thing. Then, he can scarcely be deceivin" us in sayin" that he met three Redskins carryin" off a white man--an" what good could it do him if he is? Besides, he is goin" out of his way to sarve us."
"It is impossible for me to answer your question, Paul, but I understand enough of both French and German to know that his broken English is a mere sham--a mixture, and a bad one too, of what no German or Frenchman would use--so it"s not likely to be the sort of bad English that a Swede would speak. Moreover, I have caught him once or twice using English words correctly at one time and wrongly at another. No, you may depend on it that, whatever his object may be, he is deceiving us."
"It"s mesilf as agrees wid ye, sor," said Flinders, who had been listening attentively to the conversation. "The man"s no more a Swede than an Irishman, but what can we do wid oursilves! True or false, he"s ladin" us in the diriction we want to go, an" it would do no good to say to him, `Ye spalpeen, yer decavin" of us," for he"d only say he wasn"t; or may be he"d cut up rough an" lave us--but after all, it might be the best way to push him up to that."
"I think not" said Bevan. "Doesn"t English law say that a man should be held innocent till he"s proved guilty?"
"It"s little I know or care about English law," answered Flinders, "but I"m sure enough that Irish law howlds a bad man to be guilty till he"s proved innocent--at laste av it dosn"t it should."
"You"d better go an" pump him a bit, Mr Fred," said Bevan; "we"re close up to the Sawback range; another hour an" we"ll be among the mountains."
They were turning round the spur of a little hillock as he spoke.
Before Fred could reply a small deer sprang from its lair, cast on the intruders one startled gaze, and then bounded gracefully into the bush, too late, however, to escape from Bevan"s deadly rifle. It had barely gone ten yards when a sharp crack was heard; the animal sprang high into the air, and fell dead upon the ground.
"Bad luck to ye, Bevan!" exclaimed Flinders, who had also taken aim at it, but not with sufficient speed, "isn"t that always the way ye do?-- plucks the baste out o" me very hand. Sure I had me sights lined on it as straight as could be; wan second more an" I"d have sent a bullet right into its brain, when _crack_! ye go before me. Och! it"s onkind, to say the laste of it. Why cudn"t ye gi" me a chance?"
"I"m sorry, Flinders, but I couldn"t well help it. The critter rose right in front o" me."
"Vat a goot shote you is!" exclaimed the botanist riding back to them and surveying the prostrate deer through his blue spectacles.