"
So tobacco was produced; Brooks himself was an inveterate smoker, and
since being in the mountains Desmond had taken to the weed, and there
was promise that some day he might become an inveterate.
The three men had a jolly time, but in a quiet way. Creedon was a good
story teller; he had had many weird experiences in the mountains. He had
acted as guide to a great many parties, he had engaged in about fifty
fights with Indians during his residence in the great West, and had met
a great many very notable characters.
When the men concluded to lie down to sleep for the night they
extinguished their fire, and each man found a crevice into which he
crept, and only those who have slept in the open air in a pure climate
can tell of the exhilarating effects that follow a slumber under the
conditions described.
Desmond was the first to awake, and he peeped forth from his crevice and
glanced down toward the point where the fire had been, when he beheld a
sight that caused his blood to run cold. Five fierce-looking savages
were grouped around the spot where the campfire had been, and he had a
chance to study a scene he had never before witnessed. He beheld five
savages in full war paint; they were dressed in a most grotesque manner,
part of their attire being fragments of United States uniforms, showing
that the red men had been in a skirmish, and possibly had come out
victorious, and had had an opportunity to strip the bodies of the dead.
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