human
I'll tell you what it is, Bounce, I _will_ see this wild man, if it's in the power of bones and muscles to carry me within eyeshot of him. Now, see if I don't.
gpt
D'ye know, lad, I don't mind if I go along with ye. It's true, I'm not tired of them parts hereabouts--and if I wos to live till I couldn't see, I don't think as ever I'd git tired o' the spot where my father larned me to shoot an' my mother dandled me on her knee; but I've got a fancy to see a little more o' the wurld--'specially the far-off parts o' the Rocky Mountains, w'ere I've never bin yit; so I do b'lieve if ye wos to try an' persuade me very hard I'd consent to go along with ye.
human
Will you, though?
gpt
Ay, that will I, boy, replied the hunter;
human
I know who you mean, I think; at least I know one of them,
gpt
No ye don't, do ye? Who?
human
Waller, the Yankee.
gpt
That's one, said Bounce, nodding;
human
Big Waller, we calls him.
gpt
I'm not sure that I can guess the others. Surely Tim Slater isn't one?
human
No! said Bounce, with an emphasis of tone and a peculiar twist of the point of his nose that went far to stamp the individual named with a character the reverse of noble.
gpt
Try agin.
human
I can't guess.
gpt
One's a French Canadian, said Bounce;
human
I know him, interrupted March;
gpt
Gibault Noir--Black Gibault, as they sometimes call him. Am I right?
human
Right, lad; that's two. Then there's Hawkswing, the Injun whose wife and family were all murdered by a man of his own tribe, and who left his people after that an' tuck to trappin' with the whites; that's three. An' there's Redhand, the old trapper that's bin off and on between this place and the Rocky Mountains for nigh fifty years, I believe.
gpt
Oh, I know him well. He must be made of iron, I think, to go through what he does at his time of life. I wonder what his right name is?
human
Nobody knows that, lad. You know, as well as I do, that he wos called Redhand by the Injuns in consekence o' the lot o' grislies he's killed in his day; but nobody never could git at his real name. P'r'aps it's not worth gittin' at. Now, them four 'll be startin' in a week or two for the mountains, an' wot's to hinder us a-jinin' of them?
gpt
Nothin' wotsomdiver;