"My brother is whole?" he asked anxiously.
The ferocity was gone from his face, and his fingers prodded me tenderly in search of hurts.
"Yes," I said, sitting up and rubbing a very sore throat, "except that I shall not be able to swallow for a time."
"You were choked, brother."
"And the Cahnuaga?"
"That dog is dead. Do you sleep now, for the dawn grows near and we must be upon our way."
XIV
ALONG THE GREAT TRAIL
I stirred to wakefulness when the first pink light of morning was in the eastern skies. A pungent whiff of wood-smoke filled my nostrils, and I turned over to watch Corlaer frying bacon and maize cakes—only to lose my appetite at the spectacle of Ta-wan-ne-ars stretching scalps on little hoops of withes to dry by the fire.
He went about it in a very business-like way, yet he indulged in an amiable grin over my look of interested aversion.