“In coorse,” said Vic, “but then, suthin’ may turn up. We won’t give up anyhow. Be ye purty courageous, Marion?”
“I can stand it as long as any one,” she returned, bravely.
“Thet’s the talk!” said Vic. “Thar’s no danger of starvin’ for three days anyhow. This buffler-hump an’ haunch of venison will last thet long, an’ meantime we can use our wits tew find a way tew git out.”
The rest of the day passed slowly enough. None of the captives felt very cheerful, and but for their serious situation, Scip’s lamentations would have been ludicrous. He wished he had never come among “the Injuns,” and declared if he “ever got among white folks ag’in, guess nobody’d cotch him runnin’ ’round among wild Injuns!”
Night came at last, and the inmates of the cave retired as usual, with the exception of Wild Nat, who acted as sentinel. He took his station near the passage, and with old “Roarer,” across his knees, kept watch through the long night.
It was nearly morning, being the “darkest hour just before dawn,” when the hardy trapper, who had not once closed his eyes, heard a slight sound near the entrance of the passage. Instantly he was on the alert, and with ear strained, and eyes wide open, bent slightly forward, peering into the darkness.
The grating sound continued a moment, then a faint ray of light pierced the obscurity, and the outlines of a man’s head and shoulders appeared. In another moment the loud report of a rifle reverberated through the cavern, and with a howl of pain the form disappeared.
“Wagh!” chuckled the trapper, dropping the butt of his rifle to the ground. “Guess thet feller won’t have any call to ’splore this ’ere vicinity jest at the present speakin’. Reckon thar was an idee struck him—or suthin’ else!
“All unanam’us!” he continued, as the sleeping men sprung up with exclamations of surprise, and the startled Marion asked what the matter was. “All right; I jest had occasion tew deal out justice tew a feller that was tryin’ tew sneak in without a pass! I sot as judge an’ jewry, an’ convicted the chap of evil intentions, an’ abated him, as a common nu’sance.”
“Zac’kly so,” said Vic. “I shouldn’t ’spose they’d be sich fools as tew think we’d sleep with both eyes shet. Guess they think we’re green.”