CHAPTER III.
TEDDY O’DOHERTY’S ENCOUNTERS.
It will be remembered that upon the appearance of the strange animal, during the preceding spring, one member of the party, (Teddy O’Doherty,) was asleep, and failed to see it.
But he heard enough of it continually. It was described and conjectured upon again and again in his hearing, until he came to look upon it as an old acquaintance; but having never set eyes upon it himself, he attached little credit to these numerous accounts, and supposed it was a bear or something similar.
“A pecoolyer-lookin’ critter, as everybody obsarved when they viewed me; but a critter, fur all that, that nobody need be afeard of.”
So, when a short distance from the camping-ground of his friends, he left them and started in quest of the antelope, he had no thought of the other dreaded creature that had been seen in this region, and that made its home so near at hand.
Passing over the ridge, he found himself in such a heavily-wooded country, that he dismounted and continued his hunt on foot. His horse was thus left but a short distance from the camp, and the Irishman understood well enough that he would not increase the distance.
The sun was low in the horizon, but, looking westward, Teddy caught sight of the faint column of smoke that had arrested the attempt of old Stebbins. He paused a moment and looked earnestly toward it.
“Red naygurs,” he concluded, “and they’ve squatted down rather close, as Bridget used to observe, when she sot on one side the house in Tipperary, and I on t’other. I will go and inthrodooce myself.”
The intervening ground was very favorable for a reconnoissance, and he moved along with little fear of being discovered. It was fully dark when he reached the strange camp, where not a single person was visible; but a few minutes examination showed that a large number of Blackfeet Indians had encamped there, but all had been gone several hours.