There was a furrow within a few inches of its embroided toe. I broke a branch and pawed the moccasin toward me and picked it up and went back to the horses. Then I took time to examine my prize. It was one of the pair I had given to Patsy Dale. She must have carried it carelessly to drop it in the trace without discovering her loss. I slipped it into my hunting-shirt and sat down to wait for Hughes. It was fully an hour before he came back.
“Couldn’t git a crack at him,” he growled, his face grim and sullen. “But you was a fool to be took in by such a clumsy trick as that.”
“It’s an old trick,” I conceded, taking the moccasin from my shirt. “If it had been any Indian finery I would have kept clear of it. But this happens to belong to Ericus Dale’s girl. She dropped it coming down the slope.”
He heard this in astonishment and scratched his head helplessly.
“Then I must ’a’ been asleep, or in a hell of a hurry when I come to this slope,” he muttered. “And it ain’t just the right kind of a slope to go galloping over. I don’t understand it a bit. They was riding into the settlement when I come out. I called to Dale and asked if he’d seen any Injun signs. He told me he hadn’t seen any. Then that feller Ward come trotting out the woods, looking like a’ Injun, and I was bringing up my rifle to give him his needings when Dale let out a yelp and said he was a white man. Wal, it’ll tickle the gal to learn how near her moccasin come to killing you.”
“The Indian knew it was there and knew we were coming, and used it for bait,” I mused.
“A five-year-old child would know that,” was the scornful rejoinder. “But what no five-year-old on Howard’s Creek would ’a’ done was to go for to git it after I’d called a halt. You must ’a’ been foolish in your mind. The Injun took a spot where he could line his gun on the moccasin. The growth cut off any sight of the trace ’cept where the moccasin lay. All he had to do was to line it and shoot when you stooped over it. The second he couldn’t see the moccasin he’d know some one’s body was between it and him. He heard me bawl out, but he didn’t git sight of you till you was over it, and by that time my old hoss give you a belt and made you keep on moving.”
“He undershot, yet as I was bending close to it he would have bagged me,” I said. “I have to thank you for saving my life.”
“Part of a day’s work,” he carelessly observed. “Wal, seeing as the skunk has skedaddled, we might as well push on rather smart and tell the fellers there’s a loose red round these parts.”
When we entered the settlement we saw men and women gathered in front of the Davis cabin, frankly curious to see the newcomers and eager to volley them with questions. I joined the group and through a window beheld Patsy in animated conversation with what women could crowd inside. Mrs. Davis was very proud of her cousin’s daughter and was preening herself considerably.