"I dinks I takes a nap, and shtarts when de morning comes to-morrow," he murmured, as he selected a suitable spot and stretched himself upon the ground, where, for the present, I leave him sleeping the sleep of innocence and health.
CHAPTER XV.
THE COMANCHE BEAR.
The declaration of Sebastian Carsfield that the object seen by him and Crockett across the creek, instead of being a bear, was an Indian gotten up in that shape, let in a flood of light upon both.
"I wouldn't shoot!" added the Texan; "let us go back, where he can't hit us, and we will watch it."
They carefully withdrew a few paces, and lying down flat upon the rock, peered over at the suspicious object.
They discovered little or nothing more. The dark huge figure of the animal was seen for a few minutes, groping around in the undergrowth, when it took itself off and did not come back.
"That's the bear I see'd on the clearin'," remarked Crockett; "and that Katrina wouldn't let me shoot."
"Yes; it would have been a good thing if you could have put a ball through it. I think it has been by some such means that Hans Bungslager has been led on into the woods to his own destruction."
The night was so clear and still that the two men, almost unconsciously, fell asleep, as they lay stretched out upon the rock.
The hours passed on, and when it began to grow light, Katrina awoke and advanced to the front of the cavern, and paused beside the two men stretched out there.