"There's a beauty, ain't it? another of the cooriosities of Californy!" "Starvin'," observed Rance. "Poor wretch!" exclaimed Frank, as the man advanced slowly with timid steps, while his large sunken eyes absolutely glared at the broken meat which lay scattered about. "Give him von morsel," suggested Meyer. "Give him a bullet in his dirty carcase," growled Bradling. The Indian stopped when within ten paces of the fire and grinned horribly. "Here, stop up your ghastly mouth wi' that," cried Jeffson, tossing a lump of salt-pork towards him. He caught it with the dexterity of a monkey, and, squatting down on the trunk of a fallen tree, devoured it with the ravenous ferocity of a famishing hyena. The piece of pork would have been a sufficient meal for any ordinary man, but it quickly vanished down the throat of the savage, who licked his fingers, and, with eyes which required no tongue to interpret their meaning, asked for more! "Look out!" cried Joe Graddy, tossing him a sea biscuit as one throws a quoit. The Indian caught it deftly; crash went his powerful teeth into the hard mass, and in an incredibly short time it was--with the pork! The whole party were so highly amused by this, that they "went in," as Jeffson said, "for an evening's entertainment." One tossed the poor man a cut of ham, another a slice of pork, a third a mass of bread, and so they continued to ply him with victuals, determined to test his powers to the uttermost. "Try another bit of pork," said Douglas, laughing, as he threw him a cut as large as the first; "you've finished all the cooked meat now." The Indian caught it eagerly, and began to devour it as though he had eaten nothing. "He's tightening up like a drum," observed Jeffson, handing him a greasy wedge off a raw flitch of bacon. "Him vill boost," said Meyer, staring at the Indian and smoking slowly, owing to the strength of his amazement. "Jack the Giant Killer was a joke to him," muttered Graddy. "A bottomless pit," observed Rance, referring to his stomach. The Indian, however, proved that Rance was wrong by suddenly coming to a dead halt and dropping the last morsel he was in the act of raising to his mouth. He then heaved a deep sigh and looked round on the whole party with a radiant smile, which was literally sparkling by reason of the firelight which glittered on his greasy countenance. "What! stuffed full at last?" exclaimed Jeffson, as they all burst into a fit of laughter. "Ay, chock full to the beams," said Joe Graddy; "moreover, hatches battened down, topsails shook out, anchor up, and away!"