Long before midnight, however, the conversation was brought to a close. Perhaps the empty demijohn was, as much as anything else, the monitor that urged their retiring to rest; though there was another and more creditable reason. On the morrow, the mustanger intended to start for the Settlements; and it was necessary that all should be astir at an early hour, to make preparation for the journey. The wild horses, as yet but slightly tamed, had to be strung together, to secure against their escaping by the way; and many other matters required attending to previous to departure.
The hunter had already tethered out his “ole maar” — as he designated the sorry specimen of horseflesh he was occasionally accustomed to bestride — and had brought back with him an old yellowish blanket, which was all he ever used for a bed.
“You may take my bedstead,” said his courteous host; “I can lay myself on a skin along the floor.”
“No,” responded the guest; “none o’ yer shelves for Zeb Stump to sleep on. I prefer the solid groun’. I kin sleep sounder on it; an bus-sides, thur’s no fear o’ fallin’ over.”
“If you prefer it, then, take the floor. Here’s the best place. I’ll spread a hide for you.”
“Young fellur, don’t you do anythin’ o’ the sort; ye’ll only be wastin’ yur time. This child don’t sleep on no floors. His bed air the green grass o’ the purayra.”
“What! you’re not going to sleep outside?” inquired the mustanger in some surprise — seeing that his guest, with the old blanket over his arm, was making for the door.
“I ain’t agoin’ to do anythin’ else.”
“Why, the night is freezing cold — almost as chilly as a norther!”
“Durn that! It air better to stan’ a leetle chillishness, than a feelin’ o’ suffercation — which last I wud sartintly hev to go through ef I slep inside o’ a house.”
“Surely you are jesting, Mr Stump?”
“Young fellur!” emphatically rejoined the hunter, without making direct reply to the question. “It air now nigh all o’ six yeer since Zeb Stump hev stretched his ole karkiss under a roof. I oncest used to hev a sort o’ a house in the hollow o’ a sycamore-tree. That wur on the Massissippi, when my ole ooman wur alive, an I kep up the ’stablishment to ’commerdate her. Arter she went under, I moved into Loozeyanny; an then arterward kim out hyur. Since then the blue sky o’ Texas hev been my only kiver, eyther wakin’ or sleepin’.”
“If you prefer to lie outside — ”
“I prefar it,” laconically rejoined the hunter, at the same time stalking over the threshold, and gliding out upon the little lawn that lay between the cabin and the creek.
His old blanket was not the only thing he carried along with him. Beside it, hanging over his arm, could be seen some six or seven yards of a horsehair rope. It was a piece of a cabriesto — usually employed for tethering horses — though it was not for this purpose it was now to be used.
Having carefully scrutinised the grass within a circumference of several feet in diameter — which a shining moon enabled him to do — he laid the rope with like care around the spot examined, shaping it into a sort of irregular ellipse.
Stepping inside this, and wrapping the old blanket around him, he quietly let himself down into a recumbent position. In an instant after he appeared to be asleep.
And he was asleep, as his strong breathing testified: for Zeb Stump, with a hale constitution and a quiet conscience, had only to summon sleep, and it came.
He was not permitted long to indulge his repose without interruption. A pair of wondering eyes had watched his every movement — the eyes of Phelim O’Neal.
“Mother av Mozis!” muttered the Galwegian; “fwhat can be the manin’ av the owld chap’s surroundin’ himself wid the rope?”
The Irishman’s curiosity for a while struggled with his courtesy, but at length overcame it; and just as the slumberer delivered his third snore, he stole towards him, shook him out of his sleep, and propounded a question based upon the one he had already put to himself.
“Durn ye for a Irish donkey!” exclaimed Stump, in evident displeasure at being disturbed; “ye made me think it war mornin’! What do I put the rope roun’ me for? What else wud it be for, but to keep off the varmints!”
“What varmints, Misther Stump? Snakes, div yez mane?”
“Snakes in coorse. Durn ye, go to your bed!”
Notwithstanding the sharp rebuke, Phelim returned to the cabin apparently in high glee. If there was anything in Texas, “barrin’ an above the Indyins themselves,” as he used to say, “that kept him from slapin’, it was them vinamous sarpints. He hadn’t had a good night’s rest, iver since he’d been in the counthry for thinkin’ av the ugly vipers, or dhramin’ about thim. What a pity Saint Pathrick hadn’t paid Tixas a visit before goin’ to grace!”
Phelim in his remote residence, isolated as he had been from all intercourse, had never before witnessed the trick of the cabriesto.
He was not slow to avail himself of the knowledge thus acquired. Returning to the cabin, and creeping stealthily inside — as if not wishing to wake his master, already asleep — he was seen to take a cabriesto from its peg; and then going forth again, he carried the long rope around the stockade walls — paying it out as he proceeded.
Having completed the circumvallation, he re-entered the hut; as he stepped over the threshold, muttering to himself —
“Sowl! Phalim O’Nale, you’ll slape sound for this night, spite ov all the snakes in Tixas!”
For some minutes after Phelim’s soliloquy, a profound stillness reigned around the hut of the mustanger. There was like silence inside; for the countryman of Saint Patrick, no longer apprehensive on the score of reptile intruders, had fallen asleep, almost on the moment of his sinking down upon his spread horse-skin.
For a while it seemed as if everybody was in the enjoyment of perfect repose, Tara and the captive steeds included. The only sound heard was that made by Zeb Stump’s “maar,” close by cropping the sweet grama grass.
Presently, however, it might have been perceived that the old hunter was himself stirring. Instead of lying still in the recumbent attitude to which he had consigned himself, he could be seen shifting from side to side, as if some feverish thought was keeping him awake.
After repeating this movement some half-score of times, he at length raised himself into a sitting posture, and looked discontentedly around.
“Dod-rot his ignorance and imperence — the Irish cuss!” were the words that came hissing through his teeth. “He’s spoilt my night’s rest, durn him! ’Twould sarve him ’bout right to drag him out, an giv him a duckin’ in the crik. Dog-goned ef I don’t feel ’clined torst doin’ it; only I don’t like to displeeze the other Irish, who air a somebody. Possible I don’t git a wink o’ sleep till mornin’.”
Having delivered himself of this peevish soliloquy, the hunter once more drew the blanket around his body, and returned to the horizontal position.
Not to sleep, however; as was testified by the tossing and fidgeting that followed — terminated by his again raising himself into a sitting posture.
A soliloquy, very similar to his former one, once more proceeded from his lips; this time the threat of ducking Phelim in the creek being expressed with a more emphatic accent of determination.
He appeared to be wavering, as to whether he should carry the design into execution, when an object coming under his eye gave a new turn to his thoughts.
On the ground, not twenty feet from where he sate, a long thin body was seen gliding over the grass. Its serpent shape, and smooth lubricated skin — reflecting the silvery light of the moon — rendered the reptile easy of identification.