"Well, I never paid any more attention to a man predictin' Injun troubles than I do to a farmer's kickin' about the weather, so I thanked him and we strolled on. I explained to Percival that the man was the well-known desperado, James Despard, of the Bloody Hand, and he was askin' me if I'd met any of his enemies.
"'He didn't look fierce,' says Percival.
"'That's his lay,' says I; 'he goes up to a man and don't look fierce, and the first thing you know there's a funeral.'
"About sunset we hit the place we aimed for: a nice, high spot with a pool of water, overlooking the valley for miles. It was straight on three sides, and a hard pull for the mules on the other; but a patch of grass to the back, timber handy, and the lookout it gave you, together with the water, made it worth the climb. Besides, it was the very spot where the Roosian Prince Porkandbeansky camped, time I guided him ten years before. I told Percival all about the Prince whilest I was cooking supper, thus giving him a line on the proper way to behave. It was enough to say the Prince done so-and-so—or didn't—to bring Percival into line easy for the rest of the trip.
"Well, we couldn't get under that blue coverlid of Percival's any too quick that night. I didn't mind a blanket thrown in, nor him, neither, for it was colder'n sin. We was good and tired. Broad sun-up when we woke.
"Percival, he flew around like a cock-sparrer. Happy! The Lord save us! He sung little hymns, and trotted every step he took, his sun-burnt little nose gleamin' with joy. It done you good to look at him. I took as much pride in him as though he was my sister's eldest—taught him to do this and that, till he was fit to bust with the glory of bein' such a camper. And forty times a day he'd explain to me how glad he was that I'd been his guide; how much he'd have missed otherwise. I suppose them yarns I told him had added to his romantic ideas about living uncomfortably out-of-doors, but every time he said it I felt mean again.
"Still, Satan mischief always finds for idle hands to do. After about five days of loafin' I turned the conversation to the uncertainty of things in general; we talked a good deal about it. I gradual come to particulars, and producin' a pack of playin'-cards, proceeded to show Percival how odd five of 'em dealt at a time would come out. He was interested, and I suggested that he sh'd take five, too, and he did; and the first thing you know I had everything that Percival owned, owin' to his misjudging the way them cards would fall. Then we divided again and went at it. At the end of the next week I was proud of Percival. He fronted me out of a plump jackpot without a tremble of a gray whisker, but, to save me, I couldn't get him to play cards. He said it was wicked and led to gamblin'—I dunno but what he's right at that. We had lots of fun with the Uncertainty of Things, anyhow, and saved our morals.
"At the end of three weeks us two was twin brothers. Old Percy told me in confidence he hadn't had a real friend for years before. And I liked him, you bet. We all has got our faults—why, even Mrs. Scraggs isn't free from 'em—but you scratch them off the top of Percival and you found a white man—the most trusting little critter in God and man, the kindest-hearted and the best-natured that ever lived. Honest, I couldn't sleep nights sometimes, thinking of the lies I told him, and if I'd never slept I couldn't 'a' quit—it was like leaving a starvin' nigger in charge of a hencoop.
"So things ambled along—not a jar. No rain, no crawling thing to spoil our fun, till one day just before dinner—Percy and me sittin' there with the blankets between us and our beans counted out at the side, raisin' and cross-liftin' each other, him having drawed one card whilest I took two to a pair of tens and a kicker, and made four tens—a shadder fell on the blanket. Percy was too busy wondering whether he'd better see my last raise to notice, but your Uncle Zeke has lived so long in lonesome and sometimes unhealthy places that the chill of that shadder, comin' so noiseless and unexpected, fell on his soul. Before I raised my eyes I looked at the shadder close; yes, there was a gun, and it was also an Injun.
"There ain't anything an Injun likes better than to sit tight and enjoy a cinch. He won't kill you as long as he can get some fun out of you.