CHAPTER XXXI.
SHASTA'S HUMOR.
The camp-fire was kept burning unremittingly until morning, and thewolverines as unceasingly continued their clamor, so that none of theparties secured a moment's sleep. The boys were signaled several timesby Shasta to lie down, but they were too unaccustomed to such sights andsounds to permit them to do so with anything like peace; so they usedtheir rifles upon the savage animals until prudence advised them tohusband their ammunition until they had better use for it.
Tim O'Rooney was fully as restless as they. He was in continual dreadthat some of the treacherous animals would steal up behind him andfasten their teeth so securely in him that they could not be shaken off.This uneasiness caused him ever to be shifting his position, now on oneside the fire, now on the other--springing suddenly upward as though healready felt the nip of their fangs.
The Pah Utah, at this time, displayed a grim humor, so exceptional withhis people, as to be almost incredible, except to the boys who werewitnesses to it. Believing such traits should be encouraged among allaborigines as an antidote for their melancholy dispositions, it gives usgreat pleasure to record it, and it will afford us far greater enjoymentto testify regarding any other such performances that may come under ournotice.
Tim was standing with his back toward the fire, and his hands,carelessly crossed behind him. He was intently watching the quarrelsomeanimals, and all thoughts of attack in the rear had for the timedeparted. Shasta leaned silently forward and lifted a small brand torelight his pipe, which had gone out some time before. As he was passingit back to the embers the red coal just grazed one of Tim's fingers,while at the same instant the Indian imitated the snarl of the wolverineso exactly that the follow was sure he was seized, and he made the mostagile leap of his life.
"Murther! murther! pull him off, Mr. Shasta, catch hold of him!"exclaimed the affrighted Irishman, springing wildly on every side of thefire, and striking with blind fierceness at the imaginary brute in hisrear.
Howard and Elwood laughed till the tears rolled down their cheeks. Theyhad seen Shasta's trick and they could therefore appreciate it. Never asmile lit up the grim face of the Pah Utah. He continued leisurelysmoking, his keen black eyes looking dreamily into the fire, as if lostin some pleasant reverie.
But what of that? Who can doubt, that he laughed internally full asheartily as the youngsters? Who can tell what surges, and waves, andripples of laughter went through and through him, until his whole beingwas absorbed in merriment?
Finally Tim's terror passed away and he became comparatively quiet.
"Worrah! worrah!" he exclaimed, panting from his severe exertions. "Whata narra 'scape I had."
"Did he really bite you?"
"Bite me! Didn't ye see him fasten his teeth in me and hang on till Ishuk him off?"
"No; I didn't observe him."
"Git out wid ye nonsense. But I felt him sure and it was meself thatthought once he'd pull me off into the darkness and make me a prey tothe beasts there--that I did think, did I."
"No danger," remarked Howard, as he and his cousin were unable torestrain their laughter.
"What be ye spalpeens laughing at?" indignantly demanded the Irishman.
"But, Tim, are you sure you were not mistaken? We saw nothing of thekind," pursued Howard.
The fellow looked too full of indignation to speak.
"What is getting into your heads? Ye saam to be losing your sinsesintirely."
"And I can say I saw none of them touch you."
"Then you was blind," was the indignant retort. "Ye harrd him sing outat me heels, didn't you?"
"Of course, we heard them all the time, as we do now; but the one youimagined so close may have been a dozen feet distant."
"_But he bit me!_" was the triumphant reply to this.
"Where?"
"On the hand."
"Let us see the mark!"
The boys arose and walked up to their friend, who bent over the fire,held his hand close to his face, turning it over and over andscrutinizing it with the closest attention. Concluding he was mistaken,he exchanged it for its fellow, which was subjected to an equally severecross-examination. Still nothing confirmatory of his words could befound.
The amazed Irishman now held up both his hands, turning them over andover and pressing them close to his face.
"Do yees saa anything?" he abruptly asked, thrusting them toward theboys.
They went through the form of a search for a scratch or a bite, butdeclared themselves unable to discover any.
"Don't you feel any pain?" asked Howard.
"I thought I did," replied Tim, with a serious, puzzled look upon hiscountenance.
"In what part of your body?"
"Whisht!"
He motioned to them to maintain silence, while he closed his eyes andwaited for some evidence of the pain he had so sharply felt a fewminutes before. As he stood thus, he stealthily brought each hand aroundin front of his face and subjected them to the same examination.
Suddenly his eye sparkled, and he held out his left:
"That's the hand!" he exclaimed exultingly.
"Let's see?" asked the boys, stepping up to him.
"Yees'll find it somewhere there, if yees'll take the throuble toexamine it closely."
They did so, but declared themselves unable to find the wound.
Tim finally showed a small red spot upon one of the fingers, which heaffirmed was where the cruel tooth did bite him.
"That cannot be, for the skin is not broken."
"But it faals as if the same had been bit off."
"It looks more like a burn," added Elwood.
Tim now turned around and looked at the Pah Utah. The latter was smokinghis pipe, as if unconscious of the presence of any being or animal nearhim. Perhaps they were mistaken, but Howard and Elwood always affirmedthat they detected a twitching at the corners of his mouth, as if hewere ready to explode with laughter.
But if it was that, it was nothing more, and it manifested itself in noother manner. Tim gazed fixedly at him a moment, and then turning to theboys, asked in a whisper:
_"But didn't ye hear it snarrl at meself?"_