But, suddenly abandoning his hostile purpose, he snuffed the air a moment, gaped heavily, shook himself, and peaceably resumed his recumbent attitude.
"Now, Doctor," cried the trapper, triumphantly, "I am well convinced there is neither game nor ravenous beast in the thicket; and that I call substantial knowledge to a man who is too old to be a spendthrift of his strength, and yet who would not wish to be a meal for a panther!" The dog interrupted his master by a growl, but still kept his head crouched to the earth.
"It is a man!" exclaimed the trapper, rising.

"It is a man, if I am a judge of the creatur's ways.

There is but little said atwixt the hound and me, but we seldom mistake each other's meaning!" Paul Hover sprang to his feet like lightning; and, throwing forward his rifle, he cried in a voice of menace-- "Come forward, if a friend; if an enemy, stand ready for the worst!" "A friend, a white man, and, I hope, a Christian," returned a voice from the thicket; which opened at the same instant, and at the next the speaker made his appearance..