After bettin' a good spell, I won somewhar about a hundred dollars.

Not likin' the sign I seed about, I tuk Jack and put out.

Wal, jest as I was kummin' roun' this hyur corner, four fellers--them ye seed--run out and jumped me, like so many catamounts.

I tuk them for the same chaps I hed seed parley vooin' at the craps-table; an' tho't they wur only jokin', till one of them gin me a sockdolloger over the head, an' fired a pistol.

I then drewed my bowie, an' the skrimmage begun; an' thet's all I know about it, cap'n, more'n yurself.
"Let's see if it's all up with this'n," continued the hunter, stooping.
"I'deed, yes," he drawled out; "dead as a buck.