These
were interpreted into so many proofs of the weakness of the murderer,
who would have sooner despatched his victim, had not even the dying
strength of the youth rendered him formidable to the infirmities of
one so old. The danger of drawing some others of the hunters to the
spot, by repeated firing, was deemed a sufficient reason for not again
resorting to the rifle, after it had performed the important duty of
disabling the victim. The weapon of the dead man was not to be found,
and had doubtless, together with many other less valuable and lighter
articles, that he was accustomed to carry about his person, become a
prize to his destroyer.
But what, in addition to the tell-tale bullet, appeared to fix the
ruthless deed with peculiar certainty on the trapper, was the
accumulated evidence furnished by the trail; which proved,
notwithstanding his deadly hurt, that the wounded man had still been
able to make a long and desperate resistance to the subsequent efforts
of his murderer. Ishmael seemed to press this proof with a singular
mixture of sorrow and pride: sorrow, at the loss of a son, whom in
their moments of amity he highly valued; and pride, at the courage and
power he had manifested to his last and weakest breath.
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