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Page 26
"Where! what?" asked Weston, coming up to his side.
In the darkness before them, there was a deeper darkness
that bore the indistinct appearance of a human form,
lying in a stooping posture close to the trunk of the
tree.
A vague presentiment of the truth flashed upon the mind
of the Virginian, who enjoining silence on his companion,
advanced close to the object, and laid his hand upon it.
There could be no longer a doubt. The blanket coat, and
woollen sash, which he first touched, and then the shoe
pack, told him in unmistakable language that it was Le
Noir, the Canadian owner of the dog. He shook him, and
twice, in a low voice called him by name. But there was
no answer, while the body stiff and motionless, fully
revealed the fate of the unfortunate man.
Meanwhile, Loup Garou, which had followed, squatted
himself at the head, which was hanging over the front of
what they knew, from its handles and the peculiar odor,
exhaling from it, to be a wheel-barrow filled with manure,
and then commenced licking--moaning at the same time in
a low and broken whine.
"What can the dog mean by that?" whispered Weston.
"Don't you hear him licking his dead master's face, and
telling his sorrow in his own way," answered the corporal
as, in order to assure himself, he dropped his hand to
the mouth of the dog; but no sooner had he done so, than
he drew it suddenly back with a shudder of disgust and
hastily wiped it, clammy with the blood that yet trickled
from the scalped head of the murdered man.
A low whistle was here given on the left, and a few yards
above, that startled the Virginian, for it was the signal
agreed upon if anything suspicious, should be noticed by
the other parties. He promptly answered it in a different
call, and in another minute Green and Philips had joined
him. "What have you seen?" he inquired, not regarding
the exclamation of surprise of the new comers, at the
unexpected sight before them.
"We've seen nothin' its so dark," answered Green, "but
unless the cattle have got into the garden, there's
somethin' else movin' there. Philips and I listened after
we heard the dog howl the first time, for we could hear
as if somethin' like steps were stopped suddenly when he
moaned the second time we listened again, and thought
the same thing."
"They couldn't be cattle," added Philips, "for the cattle
are all kept on the other side."
"Only the young stock, and them as ain't used about the
farm," remarked Weston.
"Well, but what kind of steps were they?" eagerly questioned
the corporal, whose, imagination was filled not more with
the danger that seemed to be near them, than with the
censure of himself he feared he should incur, on his
return to the fort, for having subjected the party to
risk. "Surely you can tell between the tread of cattle
and the steps of men."
"I should say they, weren't the steps of cattle; they
were too light for that. Though they couldn't help crushin'
the dry sticks and rubbish they couldn't help seein'
lyin' in the way. Don't you think so Philips?"
"I did, corporal, and so sure did I guess them to be no
cattle that it was me that whistled."
"Then there's no use in going farther," remarked the
Virginian gravely. "Even if we get to the house, we
can't see anything in it for the darkness, and the poor
fellow shows plain enough that it's to use looking out
to save Mr. Heywood or Ephraim Giles. Come, my lads, we
must get back to the boat, and down stream as quick and
as quiet as we can."
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