The four got right up to him."
"O don't, Zene!" begged aunt Corinne, feeling that she could not
bear the description.
But to Robert Day's mind arose the picture of Apollyon, in _Pilgrim's
Progress_, and he uttered something like a snort of enjoyment, saying:
"Go on, Zene."
[Illustration: ZENE'S WILD MAN.]
"I guess it was a crazy darkey or Mexican," Zene was careful to
explain. "He was covered with oxhide all over, so he looked red and
white hairy, and the horns and ears were on his head. He had a long
knife, and cut weeds and bark, and muttered and chuckled to himself.
He was ugly," acknowledged Zene. "The gentleman said he never saw
anything better calkilated to look scary, and the four men followed
him to his den. They wouldn't shoot him, but they wanted to see what
he was, and he never mistrusted. After a long round-about, they
watched him crawl on all-fours into a hole in a hill, and round the
mouth of the hole he'd built up a tunnel of bones. The bones smelt
awful," said Zene. "And he crawled in with his weeds and bark in his
hand, and they didn't see any more of him. That's a true story,"
vouched Zene, snapping his whip-lash at Johnson, "but your grandmarm
wouldn't like for me to tell it to you.
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