“Who did, then?”
“I don’t know, I declare.”
Nat picked up the fragments and examined them carefully.
“That’s my pipe sure; and I had it in my mouth, I remember when I started out, and missed it coming back. I didn’t put it in the gun though.”
“Let it pass then. Did you see no more of your Indian friend?”
“No; he knew enough to keep out of my way. I waited a long time for him, and at last started home again. I kept an eye on every suspicious object, but as I just said, seen nothing.”
At this point I gave free vent to my pent-up mirth. Nat, much astonished, looked wonderingly at me, seemingly at a loss to understand the cause.
“I do not see what there is to laugh at,” he remarked, reprovingly. “If it’s a laughing matter to know that there are Injins all about you, why you must laugh.”
“Your adventure with the Indian, Nat, and the singular load in your rifle appears to me to be a funny matter, and I trust you will pardon me if——”
“Didn’t I tell you I didn’t put it in there? It was the Injin’s work.”