La Bonté had been rather smitten with the charms of one Dolores Salazar--a buxom lass, more than three parts Indian in her blood, but confessedly the "beauty" of the Vale of Taos. She, by dint of eye, and of nameless acts of elaborate coquetry, with which the sex so universally bait their traps, whether in the salons of Belgravia, or the rancherias of New Mexico, contrived to make considerable havoc in the heart of our mountaineer; and when once Dolores saw she had made an impression, she followed up her advantage with all the arts the most civilised of her sex could use when fishing for a husband. La Bonté, however, was too old a hunter to be easily caught; and, before committing himself, he sought the advice of his tried companion Killbuck. Taking him to a retired spot without the village, he drew out his pipe and charged it--seated himself cross-legged on the ground, and, with Indian gravity, composed himself for a "talk." "Ho, Killbuck!" he began, touching the ground with the bowl of his pipe, and then turning the stem upwards for "_medicine_"--"Hyar's a child feels squamptious like, and nigh upon 'gone beaver,' _he_ is--Wagh!" "Wagh!" exclaimed Killbuck, all attention. "Old hos," continued the other; "thar's no use câching anyhow what a niggur feels--so hyar's to 'put out.' You're good for beaver I know; at deer or buffler, or darned red Injun either, you're 'some.' Now that's a fact. 'Off-hand,' or 'with a rest,' you make 'em 'come.' You knows the 'sign' of Injuns slick--Blackfoot or Sioux, Pawnee or Burntwood, Zeton, Rapaho, Shian, or Shoshonée, Yutah, Piyutah, or Yamhareek--their trail's as plain as writin', old hos, to you." "Wagh!" grunted Killbuck, blushing bronze at all these compliments. "Your sight ain't bad. Elks is elk; black-tail deer ain't white-tails; and b'ar is b'ar to you, and nothin' else, a long mile off and more." "Wa-agh!" "Thar ain't a track as leaves its mark upon the plains or mountains but you can read off-hand; that I've see'd myself. But tell me, old hos, can you make understand the 'sign' as shows itself in a woman's breast?" Killbuck removed the pipe from his mouth, raised his head, and puffed a rolling cloud of smoke into the air,--knocked the ashes from the bowl, likewise made his "medicine"--and answered thus:--