Chapter 26 - Page 2

What there was to enable one, at that distance, to distinguish between the
leg of a white man and the leg of an Indian, at first greatly exceeded our
means of conjecturing; but the Onondago explained it, when asked, in his
own usual, sententious manner, by saying:

"Toe turn out--Injin turn in--no like, at all. Pale-face big; Injin no very
big."

The first was true enough in walking, and it did seem probable that the
difference might exist in sleep. Guert now declared there was no use in
hesitating any longer; if asleep he would approach the chestnut cautiously,
and capture the stranger, if an Indian, before he could rise; and if a
white man, it must be some one belonging to our own set, who was taking
a nap, probably, after a fatiguing march. Susquesus must have satisfied
himself, by this time, that there was no immediate danger; for merely
saying, "all go together," he quitted the cover, and led down towards the
chestnut with a rapid but noiseless step. As we moved in a body all five of
us reached the tree at the same instant, where we found Sam, one of our own
hunters, and whom we supposed to be with Mr. Traverse, stretched on his
back, dead; with a wound in his breast that had been inflicted by a knife.
He, too, had been scalped!

The looks we exchanged, said all that could be said on the subject of the
gravity of this new discovery. Susquesus, alone, was undisturbed; I rather
think he expected what he found. After examining the body, he seemed
satisfied, simply saying, "kill, last night."

That poor Sam had been dead several hours was pretty certain, and the
circumstance removed all apprehension of any immediate danger from his
destroyers. The ruthless warriors of the woods seldom remained long near
the spot they had desolated, but passed on, like the tornado, or the
tempest. Guert, who was ever prompt when anything was to be done, pointed
to a natural hollow in the earth; one of those cavities that are so common
in the forest, and which are usually attributed to the upturning of trees
in remote ages, and suggested that we should use it as a grave. The body
was accordingly laid in the hole, and we covered it in the best manner we
could; succeeding in placing over it something like a foot deep of light
loam, together with several flat stones; rolling logs on all, as we had
done at the grave of Pete. By this time Guert's feelings were so thoroughly
aroused, that, in addition to the prayer and the creed, which he again
repeated, in a very decorous and devout manner, he concluded the whole
ceremony by a brief address. Nor was Guert anything but serious in what
he did, or said, on either of these solemn occasions; his words, like his
acts, being purely the impulses of a