After a few moments of an exercise that restored circulation to his blood and elasticity to his joints, completely reassured about himself, the thought occurred to him of trying whether among the bodies lying around him any still breathed. "They are only Indians," he muttered, "but, after all, they are men; although they are nearly deprived of reason, humanity orders me to help them; the more so, as my present situation has nothing very agreeable about it, and if I succeed in saving any of them, their knowledge of the desert will be of great service to me." This last consideration determined him on helping men whom probably without it he would have abandoned to their fate, that is to say, to the teeth of the wild beasts which, attracted by the scent of blood, would have certainly made them their prey after dark. Still it is our duty to render the egotistic citizen of the United States the justice of saying that, so soon as he had formed this determination, he acquitted himself conscientiously and sagaciously of his self-imposed task, which was easy to him after all; for the numerous professions he had carried on during the course of his adventurous life had given him a medical knowledge and experience which placed him in a position to give sick persons that care their condition demanded. Unfortunately, most of the persons he inspected had received such serious wounds that life had long fled their bodies, and help was quite unavailing. "Hang it, hang it!" the American muttered at every corpse he turned over, "These poor savages were killed by a master-hand. At any rate they did not suffer long, for with such fearful wounds they must have surrendered their souls to the Creator almost instantaneously." He thus reached the spot where lay the body of Blue-fox, with a wide gaping wound in his chest. "Ah, ah! Here is the worthy Chief," he went on. "What a gash! Let us see if he is dead too." He bent over the motionless body, and put the blade of his knife to the Indian's lips. "He does not stir," he continued, with an air of discouragement; "I am afraid I shall have some difficulty in bringing him round." In a few minutes, however, he looked at the blade of his knife and saw that it was slightly tarnished. "Come, he is not dead yet; so long as the soul holds to the body, there is hope, so I will have a try."