Why, Eester, woman! you ar' getting beside yourself; with picking at the hair and the garments of the child! Little good can you do him now, old girl." "See!" interrupted Enoch, extricating from the fragments of cloth the morsel of lead which had prostrated the strength of one so powerful; "here is the very bullet!" Ishmael took it in his hand and eyed it long and closely.
"There's no mistake," at length he muttered through his compressed teeth.

"It is from the pouch of that accursed trapper.

Like many of the hunters he has a mark in his mould, in order to know the work his rifle performs; and here you see it plainly--six little holes, laid crossways." "I'll swear to it!" cried Abiram, triumphantly.

"He show'd me his private mark, himself, and boasted of the number of deer he had laid upon the prairies with these very bullets! Now, Ishmael, will you believe me when I tell you the old knave is a spy of the red-skins ?" The lead passed from the hand of one to that of another, and unfortunately for the reputation of the old man, several among them remembered also to have seen the aforesaid private bullet-marks, during the curious examination which all had made of his accoutrements.

In addition to this wound, however, were many others of a less dangerous nature, all of which were supposed to confirm the supposed guilt of the trapper.
The traces of many different struggles were to be seen, between the spot where the first blood was spilt and the thicket to which it was now generally believed Asa had retreated, as a place of refuge.