On hearing Tranquil's voice all at once so close to him, the young man gave a start, frowned, and asked himself mentally how it was that the hunter came to find him thus in his camp, and what reason was powerful enough to impel him to do so; the more so, because his intimacy with the Canadian, ever subject to intermittences, was at this moment on terms far from amicable, if not completely hostile. Still the young man, in whom the feeling of honour spoke loudly, and whom the steps taken by Tranquil flattered more than he cared to let anyone see, concealed the apprehensions that agitated him, and walked quickly, and with a smile on his lips, to meet the hunter. The latter was not alone; Loyal Heart accompanied him. The Canadian's manner was reserved, and his face was covered by a cloud of sorrow. "You are welcome to my camp, hunter," the Jaguar said kindly, as he offered his hand. "Thank you," the Canadian answered laconically, not touching the proffered hand. "I am glad to see you," the young man went on, without any display of annoyance; "what accident has brought you in this direction?" "My comrade and I have been hunting for a long time; fatigue is crushing us, and the smoke of your camp attracted us." The Jaguar pretended to accept as gospel this clumsy evasion of a man who justly prided himself as being the healthiest and strongest wood-ranger of the desert. "Come, then, and take a seat at my camp fire, and be good enough to regard everything here as belonging to you, and act in accordance with it." The Canadian bowed, but made no answer, and with Loyal Heart followed the hunter who preceded them, and guided them through the mazes of the camp. On reaching the fire, upon which the young man threw a few handfuls of dry wood, the hunters sat down on buffalo skulls placed there as seats, and then, without breaking the silence, filled their pipes and began smoking. The Jaguar imitated them. Those white men who traverse the prairie, and whose life is spent in hunting or trapping on these vast solitudes, have unconsciously assumed most of the habits and customs of the Redskins, with whom the exigencies of their position bring them constantly into contact. A thing worthy of remark, is the tendency of civilized men to return to savage life, and the facility with which hunters, born for the most part in the great centres of population, forget their habits of comfort, surrender the customs of towns, and renounce the usages by which they were governed during the earlier part of their life, in order to adopt the manners, and even the habits, of the Redskins. Many of these hunters carry this so far, that the greatest compliment which can be paid them is to pretend to take them for Indian warriors.