, notwithstanding their usual dullness, were well
instructed in most things connected with their habits of life, an inquiry, the
success of which depended so much on signs and evidences that bore so strong a
resemblance to a forest trail, was likely to be conducted, with skill and
acuteness. Accordingly, they proceeded to the melancholy task with great
readiness and intelligence.
    Abner and Enoch, agreed in their accounts as to the position in which they
had found the body. It was seated nearly upright, the back supported by a mass
of matted brush, and one hand still grasping a broken twig of the alders. It
was, most probably, owing to the former circumstance, that the body had escaped
the rapacity of the carrion birds, which had been seen hovering above the
thicket, and the latter prov'd that life had not yet entirely abandoned the
hapless victim when he entered the brake. The opinion now became general that
the youth had received his death wound in the open Prairie, and had dragged his
enfeebled form into the cover of the thicket for the purpose of concealment. A
trail through the bushes confirmed this opinion. It also appeared, on
examination, that a desperate struggle had taken place on the very margin of the
thicket. This was sufficiently apparent by the trodden branches, the deep
impressions on the moist ground, and the lavish flow of blood.
    »He has been shot in the open ground and come here for a cover,« said
Abiram, »these marks would clearly prove it. The boy has been set upon by the
savages, in a body, and has fout like a hero as he was, until they have mastered
his strength, and then drawn him to the bushes.«
    To this probable opinion there was now but one dissenting voice; that of the
slow-minded Ishmael who demanded that the corpse, itself, should be examined in
order to obtain a more accurate knowledge of its injuries. On examination, it
appeared, that a rifle bullet had passed directly through the body of the
deceased, entering beneath one of his brawny shoulders and making its exit, by
the breast. It required some knowledge in gun-shot wounds to decide this
delicate point, but the experience of the borderers was quite equal to the
scrutiny, and a smile of wild, and certainly of singular satisfaction passed
among the sons of Ishmael, when Abner confidently announced that the enemies of
Asa had assailed him in the rear.
    »It must be so,« said the gloomy but attentive squatter. »He was of too good
a stock and too well trained, knowingly to