"Menke, ye couldn't have missed that feller no how. Queer the brute 'lowed me to come so close; never moved till I sent the jav'lin right into his ugly carcass. There he lies, sure enough, at the bottom o' the ravine, dead as a stone. Ol' feller, ye got yer everlastin', an' no mistake. Hello! What's that?" was the exclamation which followed the discovery of the prince's quarters. "Looks as ef somebody'd gone to house-keepin'." The foregoing talk was carried on by Menke, the hunter, who was introduced to the reader in the preceding chapter. It was in the nature of a soliloquy, in which, as we have before observed, the hunter frequently indulged. In pursuing his hunt through the mountain forests he had chanced to pass near the place where the prince and Oza were sheltered, and seeing the animal with fixed attention, crept cautiously up and gave it a death thrust with the javelin. He was too deeply intent on securing the animal as a prize to notice the retreat of the fugitives until the moment his exclamation was uttered. Hualcoyotl very naturally concluded, on hearing the voice, that there were at least two persons in the party. He also surmised, from the character of the language used, that they were denizens of the mountains. "They are surely not soldiers," he thought, "and may prove to be friendly." The hunter descended into the ravine for the purpose of securing his prize, hardly expecting to find any one under cover of the shelter he had just discovered. When he reached the bottom near where the animal was lying, his eyes fell upon the forms of the prince and Oza, who had remained quietly waiting developments. He quickly took in the situation and said, with an air of surprise: "Wull, now, what kind of a nest d'ye call that, eh?" "It might be a worse one, hunter," returned the prince, recognizing Menke's calling by his general appearance, at the same time coming out of his sheltered retreat. "We were endeavoring to get some sleep, after a very tiresome tramp over the mountain," he continued, "when the cry of this beast aroused us rather unceremoniously; and for the past half hour we have been trying to drive it from us by looking it steadily in the eyes. But it has been provokingly persistent, and might have worried us out in time, had you not opportunely come along and relieved us with your javelin." "That 'counts for the brute payin' no 'tention to me; 'lowin' me to come right onto 'im, an' givin' me such a fine show for his skin," returned the hunter. "Yes, its fixed attention made it a splendid target for your javelin. But, friend, where are your companions?" the prince asked, seeing no one but the hunter. "My companions," quoth Menke. "Don't understand ye, stranger." "We certainly heard you talking with someone just before you came into the ravine," replied the prince.