"Ay, horrid eyes enough, I will willingly allow," returned the
trapper; "and altogether the creatur' has a frightful look, to one
unused to the sights and bustle of a natural life; but then the
courage of the beast is in no way equal to its countenance. Lord, man,
if you should once get fairly beset by a brood of grizzly bears, as
happened to Hector and I, at the great falls of the Miss--Ah, here
comes the tail of the herd, and yonder goes a pack of hungry wolves,
ready to pick up the sick, or such as get a disjointed neck by a
tumble. Ha! there are mounted men on their trail, or I'm no sinner!
here, lad; you may see them here-away, just where the dust is
scattering afore the wind. They are hovering around a wounded
buffaloe, making an end of the surly devil with their arrows!"
Middleton and Paul soon caught a glimpse of the dark group, that the
quick eye of the old man had so readily detected. Some fifteen or
twenty horsemen were, in truth, to be seen riding, in quick circuits,
about a noble bull, which stood at bay, too grievously hurt to fly,
and yet seeming to disdain to fall, notwithstanding his hardy body had
already been the target for a hundred arrows.
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