“Welcome to know it, stranger. I’m a-goin’ to kill Josh Stebbins!”
“Kill Josh Stebbins?”
“Eyther that, or he shall kill me.”
“Oh! nonsense!” I exclaimed, surprised less at the intention—which I had already half divined—than at the cool determined tone in which it was declared.
“I’ve said it, stranger! I’ve sworn it over an’ over, an’ it shell be done. ’Taint no new notion I’ve tuk. I’d detarmined on makin’ him fight long ago: for I’d an old score to settle wi’ him, afore that ’un you know o’; but I niver ked got the skunk to stan’ up. He allers tuk care to keep out o’ my way. Now I’ve made up my mind he don’t dodge me any longer; an’, by the Etarnal! if that black-hearted snake’s to be foun’ in the settlement—”
“He is not to be found in the settlement.”
“Not to be foun’ in the settlement!” echoed the hunter, in a tone that betrayed both surprise and vexation—“not to be foun’ in the settlement? Surely you ain’t in earnest, stranger? You seed him the day afore yesterday!”
“True—but I have reason to think he is gone.”
“God forbid! But you ain’t sure o’ it? What makes you think he air gone?”
“Too sure of it—it was that knowledge that brought me in such haste to your cabin.”