“You have been foraging to some advantage,” I remarked as they came up.
“Yes, capt’n,” replied Garey, “we won’t want for rashuns. Not but that your rangers offered us a plenty to eat; but ye see we couldn’t in honour accept o’ it, for we promised to find for ourselves.”
“Ye-es, durn it!” added Rube, “we’re free mountainee men—ain’t a gwine to sponge on nobody—we ain’t.”
“An’, capt’n,” continued Garey, “thar don’t appear to be any great eatin’ fixins about the place for yurself neyther: if yu’ll just accept o’ the turkey, and one o’ these hyar quarters o’ the deer-meat, thar’s plenty left for Rube an’ me; ain’t thar, Rube?”
“Gobs!” was the laconic answer.
I was not loath to satisfy the wish of the hunters—for to say the truth, the village larder had no such delicacies as either wild turkey or venison—and having signified my assent, we all three moved away from the spot. With the trappers for my guides, I should soon get into the right road. They, too, were on their return to the post. They had been in the woods since noon. They were both afoot, having left their horses at the rancheria.
After winding about half-a-mile among the trees, we came out upon a narrow road. Here my companions, who were unacquainted with the neighbourhood, were at fault as well as myself: and knew not which direction to take.
It was dark as pitch, but, as on the night before, there was lightning at intervals. Unlike the preceding night, however, it was now raining as if all the sluices of the sky had been set open; and by this time we were all three of us soaking wet. The whole canopy of heaven was shrouded in black, without a single streak of light upon it—not even a star. Who could discover the direction in such a night?
As the lightning flashed, I saw Rube bending down over the road; he appeared to be examining the tracks. I noticed that there were wheel-tracks—deep ruts—evidently made by the rude block-wheels of a carreta. It was these that the trapper was scanning.
Almost as soon as a man could have read the direction from a finger-post, Rube raised himself erect, and crying out—