Chapter 10

Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear
How he will shake me up.
--As you like it.

It is well known, that even long before the immense regions of
Louisiana changed their masters for the second, and, as it is to be
hoped, for the last time, its unguarded territory was by no means safe
from the inroads of white adventurers. The semi-barbarous hunters from
the Canadas, the same description of population, a little more
enlightened, from the States, and the metiffs or half-breeds, who
claimed to be ranked in the class of white men, were scattered among
the different Indian tribes, or gleaned a scanty livelihood in
solitude, amid the haunts of the beaver and the bison; or, to adopt
the popular nomenclature of the country of the buffaloe.[*]

[*] In addition to the scientific distinctions which mark the two
species, it may be added, with due deference to Dr. Battius, that a
much more important particular is the fact, that while the former
of these animals is delicious and nourishing food, the latter is
scarcely edible.

It was, therefore, no unusual thing for strangers to encounter each
other in the endless wastes of the west. By signs, which an
unpractised eye would pass unobserved, these borderers knew when one
of his fellows was in his vicinity, and he avoided or approached the
intruder as best comported with his feelings or his interests.
Generally, these interviews were pacific; for the whites had a common
enemy to dread, in the ancient and perhaps more lawful occupants of
the country; but instances were not rare, in which jealousy and
cupidity had caused them to terminate in scenes of the most violent
and ruthless treachery. The meeting of two hunters on the American
desert, as we find it convenient sometimes to call this region, was
consequently somewhat in the suspicious and wary manner in which two
vessels draw together in a sea that is known to be infested with
pirates. While neither party is willing to betray its weakness, by
exhibiting distrust, neither is disposed to commit itself by any acts
of confidence, from which it may be difficult to recede.

Such was, in some degree, the character of the present interview. The
stranger drew nigh deliberately; keeping his eyes steadily fastened on
the movements of the other party, while he purposely created little
difficulties to impede an approach which might prove too hasty. On the
other hand, Paul stood playing with the lock of his rifle, too proud
to let it appear that three men could manifest any apprehension of a
solitary individual, and yet too prudent to omit, entirely, the
customary precautions. The principal reason of the marked difference
which the two legitimate proprietors of the banquet made in the
receptions of their