CHAPTER III.
Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood, as any in Italy; and as soon mov'd to be moody, and as soon moody to be moved.
-- Romeo and Juliet.
Though the trapper manifested some surprise when he perceived that another human figure was approaching him, and that, too, from a direction opposite to the place where the emigrant had made his encampment, it was with the steadiness of one long accustomed to scenes of danger.
"This is a man," he said; "and one who has white blood in his veins, or his step would be lighter.

It will be well to be ready for the worst, as the half-and-halfs,[*] that one meets, in these distant districts, are altogether more barbarous than the real savage." [*] Half-breeds; men born of Indian women by white fathers.

This race has much of the depravity of civilisation without the virtues of the savage.
He raised his rifle while he spoke, and assured himself of the state of its flint, as well as of the priming by manual examination.

But his arm was arrested, while in the act of throwing forward the muzzle of the piece, by the eager and trembling hands of his companion.
"For God's sake, be not too hasty," she said; "it may be a friend--an acquaintance--a neighbour!" "A friend!" the old man repeated, deliberately releasing himself, at the same time, from her grasp.

"Friends are rare in any land, and less in this, perhaps, than in another; and the neighbourhood is too thinly settled to make it likely that he who comes towards us is even an acquaintance." "But though a stranger, you would not seek his blood!" The trapper earnestly regarded her anxious and frightened features, and then he dropped the butt of his rifle on the ground, like one whose purpose had undergone a sudden change.
"No," he said, speaking rather to himself, than to his companion, "she is right; blood is not to be spilt, to save the life of one so useless, and so near his time.