“I don’t know what to think about him, Will, ’pon my word. When we slung Wescott overboard the fool jumped after him, and I left them both in the river. Tom got out, some way, and came to Napope’s camp, but after their fight we could not find hide nor hair of him.”
“You’ve lost the best man in the party, then, by all odds. Tom was the only one who had a spark of humanity in his composition. You are sure these men you left with the girl are all right?”
“Davis, Bradshaw and Herrick.”
“They’ll do; as true panthers as ever lapped blood. How many has Melton in his fort?”
“He had twenty.”
“Then he’s got twenty now,” said Jackwood. “You have not hurt many of them in that place, for the captain knows how to choose a position. Send one of the Indians to Black-Hawk, and tell him to make haste, as we must get this little job off our hands.”
“If you find it a little job, then there are no snakes in the South Red,” said Garrett, who was incensed at the quiet way in which his defeat was laughed down. “They licked Napope alone, and now they’ve licked our combined forces, and it is no two to one they don’t give our friend Black-Hawk all he can do. You ought to know Melton’s scouts by this time.”
Jackwood nodded, and a fierce look came into his face:
“If I had been here, friend Garrett, this would never have happened. If I had assailed these works, I would have taken them.”
“Then assail them now. You’ve got the men—try it.”