“Makes it so that the arrow breaks off and leaves the point in the wound. Anything don’t live very long with one of those points left in its skin.”
“Think we shall meet any Indians, Shaddy?” said Joe.
“Maybe yes, my lad; maybe no. You never know. They come and go like wild beasts—tigers, lions, and such-like.”
“Do you think my lion will follow us, Shaddy?” said Rob eagerly.
“No, my lad; I don’t. He had a long swim before him to get to shore; and it’s my belief that he would be ’tacked and pulled under before he had gone very far.”
“How horrible!”
“Yes, my lad; seems horrid, but I don’t know. Natur’s very curious. If he was pulled under to be eaten it was only to stop him from pulling other creatures down and eating them. That’s the way matters go on out in these forests where life swarms, and from top to bottom one thing’s killing and eating another. It’s even so with the trees, as I’ve told you: the biggest and strongest kill the weak ’uns, and live upon ’em. It’s all nature’s way, my lads, and a good one.”
“Well, we don’t want the Indians to kill us, Shaddy,” said Rob merrily.
“And they shan’t, my lad, if I can help it. Perhaps we mayn’t see any of them, and one side of the river’s safe, so we shall keep that side; but if they come any of their nonsense with us they must be taught to keep to themselves with a charge or two of small shot. If that don’t teach them to leave respectable people alone they must taste larger shot. I don’t want to come to bullets ’cept as a last resource.”
“I should have liked to have found the puma again,” said Rob after a time.