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 »Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear
 How he will shake me up.«
                                                      As You Like It, I.i.27-28.
 
It is well known, that even long before the immense regions of Louisiana changed
their masters, for the second, and, as it is to be hoped for the last time, its
unguarded territory was by no means, safe from the inroads of white adventurers.
The semi-barbarous hunters from the Canadas, the same description of population,
a little more enlightened from the States, and the metiffs or half breeds who
claimed to be ranked in the class of white men, were scattered, among the
different Indian tribes or gleaned a scanty livelihood, in solitude, amid the
haunts of the beaver and the bison; or, to adopt the popular nomenclature of the
country, of the buffaloe.15
    It was, therefore, no unusual thing for strangers to encounter each other in
the endless wastes of the West. By signs which an unpractised eye would pass
unobserved, a borderer, knew when one of his fellows was in his vicinity, and he
avoided or approached the intruder, as best comported with his feelings or his
interests. Generally, these interviews were pacific, for the whites had a common
enemy to dread in the ancient, and perhaps more lawful, occupants, of the
country, but instances were not rare, in which jealousy and cupidity, had caused
them to terminate in scenes of the most violent and ruthless treachery. The
meeting of two hunters on the American desert, as we find it convenient,
sometimes, to call this region, was, consequently, somewhat in the suspicious
and wary manner in which two vessels draw together in a sea, that is known to be
infested with pirates. While neither party is willing to betray its weakness by
exhibiting distrust, neither is disposed to commit itself, by any acts of
confidence from which it may be difficult to recede.
    Such, was, in some degree, the character of the present interview. The
stranger drew nigh, deliberately, keeping his eyes steadily fastened on the
movements of the other party, while he purposely created little difficulties to
impede an approach which might prove too hasty. On the other hand, Paul stood,
playing with the lock of his rifle, too proud to let it appear that three men
could manifest any apprehension of a solitary individual, and yet too prudent,
to omit, entirely, the customary precautions. The principal reason of the marked
difference which the two legitimate proprietors of the banquet, made in the
receptions of their guests, was