“Our boys don’t scare very easy,” was the answer, “and are always ready to take and give. If you are inclined that way, I don’t know but it is just as well to humor you.”
“Hold on, boys,” cried Old Pegs. “I take a hand in this game, myself. The fust man that lifts a weepen hez got ter stand a shot from me.”
“I will not be bullied by any man alive,” cried Rafe Norris. “If I shot this savage, it was only to put him out of pain, for any man can see that he would have been dead in five minutes.”
“Mout be you are right, Rafe,” replied Old Pegs; “but, why didn’t you let him die the nat’ral way? It almost seemed to me thet the cuss know’d you, and was going ter speak.”
“Pshaw; what will you suspect next, I wonder? I never saw the fellow in my life.”
“I ain’t going to conterdict you, Rafe, acause it won’t pay, ez I hain’t got no proof. Howsumever, thar lies the critter with a bullet in the heart, and he’s rubbed out, easy. But, what I want ter know is this: what is this yer Modoc Sioux doing in this kentry?”
“Modoc Sioux!” cried Dave, looking more closely at the dead savage. “You are right, old man, and it is a surprise to see a party of that tribe in the heart of the Blackfoot country.”
Rafe Norris started; an angry look came into his face, for he thought he saw suspicion in the eyes of the two men. That branch of the great Sioux nation known as the Modoc Sioux were notorious for their hostility to the whites, and their country was far away.
“Let’s look at the other chap,” said Old Pegs. “This hyar gets me, it does; it gets me dead ter rights.”
They hurried to the side of the Indian who had been so suddenly stricken by the fatal bullet of Dave Farrell, and turned him over. The ball had entered the back just below the left shoulder, and passed through his heart, so that his death was instantaneous. His face was calm and peaceful, and both the mountainmen started as they recognized “Half-breed Jack,” a man who was known far and wide as one of most trusted employes of the Hudson Bay Company—a villain who was capable of any crime.