"I will not allow him to be killed," replied the young soldier.
The Yankee straightened his long back, and looked at the young man as if taken completely aback by this speech. "Not kill a red-skin? Not stick him when yew've got him? By the mortal, ef this ain't pizen. Not—good gracious, yew raise my dander mortal bad! What yew goin' tew dew with the critter then, if I may ask 'thout giving offense?"
"Take him into the stockade, cure him of his wound if possible, and—"
"Give him yure skulp when he gits strong enuff tew take it! That's right! Keep up the repitation of the fam'ly, by all means! Waal, I won't say no more. Come along, yew! But, if the time don't come when yew jest ez live stick an Injin as eat a b'iled potater, then ther ain't no snakes in Kentuck'."
They hurried on to the place where the Skeleton Scout had been seen; the grass was bent and trodden down, and, further on, an Indian was lying on his face, dead. Floyd turned him over, and saw that it was a Winnebago, a desperate villain, who had been suspected of the murder of a white family, years before, but escaped through insufficient evidence. However, innocent or guilty, he had met his fate at last.
"How was he killed?" said Floyd. "I don't see any blood."
They examined him closely, but not a mark could be found upon the body to show how he had died. Dead he certainly was, and the stiffened muscles told that he had not died easily. The puzzled look again came into the face of Seth Spink.
"Now, don't this beat all natur'?" he ejaculated. "We'll hev tew believe pooty soon that the Skileton Scout is a skileton, arter all. Leastways he don't leave no marks upon his victims."
"It is strange indeed," replied Captain Floyd. "Hold the lantern close, will you? There must be a mark on him somewhere."
A still closer search failed to elicit any further information. The Indian was dead, but how? He had not been choked, for the face of a man who dies in that way always shows unmistakable signs of strangulation. His neck was not broken, as Floyd began to believe, and not a drop of blood was visible upon his person.