CHAPTER XIII
CLOUD-SIGN VERSUS CUPID
Few men are ever called upon by untoward circumstance to know the
sensations caused by rattlesnake bite, knife gashes, impromptu
cauterization, and, topping the whole, the peculiar torture of
congested veins and swollen muscles which comes from a
tourniquet. The feeling must be unpleasant in the extreme, and
the most morbid of sensation-seekers would scarcely put himself
in the way of that particular experience.
Peppajee Jim, therefore, had reason in plenty for glowering at
the world as he saw it that day. He held Huckleberry rigidly
down to his laziest amble that the jar of riding might be
lessened, kept his injured foot free from the stirrup, and merely
grunted when Good Indian asked him once how he felt.
When they reached the desolation of the old placer-pits, however,
he turned his eyes from the trail where it showed just over
Huckleberry's ears, and regarded sourly the deep gashes and
dislodged bowlders which told where water and the greed of man
for gold had raged fiercest.
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