“I see.”
“They went along and were coming up a grade, when they heard strange sounds, the tramping of many feet. They broke and ran back.”
“Well.”
“They could not bring the women and children with them, so to be revenged, they came back and determined to kill every white woman and man they found here.”
“Yes.” Jim was thinking hard and he certainly wished that his pockets were full of explosives.
“They gathered up friendly tribes to help them, and landed here about half an hour ago, took possession of all the guns in the settlement, drove the native women away, and captured the white women,” Donald explained.
“Don’t they know the professor will come back with their families?” Bob asked.
“At this time none may come back from the Black Woods,” one man declared sullenly. “None comes out alive.”
“The Professor, who is a fool, will himself never come back. He took children, our children, to their deaths,” another put in darkly.
“For the loss of them, we take the white women,” snapped a third, and his hand went toward Phyllis’ shoulder.