I wonder sometimes children in the whole story........
"I also passed a tree in one of the forks of which I had, at another time, found an old muzzle-loading rifle, rusted, worn, and decaying, a whole history in itself, and beyond, not two hundred yards away, an Indian's skull with a neat round hole through the crown."
Now the bulge in this is, ok someone with an old muzzle loader, had time and took cover, to take a steady enough rest in a tree fork to solidly implant a lead shot to the skull.
That is where the mystery begins, as Indians always took away their dead. They were not about to get themselves lost in chasing off a white or red guy, so they would come back and fetch the dead and the important rifle.
I can see a tired man leaving a spent rifle in running for his life, but again, it is the Indians who would do the chasing who would return.
Sure the shooter could have popped an Indian by surprise, but it would not make sense to leave the rifle, even if empty, providing other Indians were not pressing things.
This deduces to some eastern nimrod out skulking about, and getting all fired up about shooting an Indian when an opportunity arose, and then became so buck fevered afterwards, left the weapon by the tree, and got lost along the way out in the excitement.
I found a knife once, and saw a guy who once pull out a fishing rid with his own hook that was better than what he was fishing with, but I never found a gun or Indian skull with a bullet hole in it.
I did have a friend once find an old guys skull who was senile, while hunting, but no bullet holes.
I hope if I ever find something of skulls, that it is accompanied by some type of rifle that I have always desired, to make it all worth it.
The Indians would have picked up the dead and the rifle, so the guy who shot the muzzle loader, not being found dead from a wound in his skull, points to a gunman who got excited and ran off without his gun as no other Indians were around.
Wonder who the guy was, as no one ever was through there for 20 to 40 years apparently.
You finish the story then as the teller in Bronson Rumsey did not.
agtG
