Being under suspicion, White Buffalo deemed it best not to show himself around Fort Cumberland. The excitement over the massacre of the Digly family had died down, but many still believed that White Buffalo was guilty in part, if not in whole. It was said that one white settler had seen the murder done, but he was now among the missing and could, consequently, give no testimony.
"If we can find that man perhaps we can clear White Buffalo," Dave had said more than once, but the settler could not be located, much to the disappointment of all the aged Indian chief's friends.
"White Buffalo has heard a curious story," said the aged chief, after matters in general had been talked over. "The tale came from an old chief of the Ottawas, who once married a maiden of the Delawares. The chief's name is Silver Cloud, and he thinks not much of this war."
"I've heard of Silver Cloud," returned Sam Barringford. "I thought he was dead of old age."
"He has heard of my brother Sam, and when White Buffalo told him that Sam had taken two little children for his own, he was interested, and had White Buffalo tell the story of the finding of the twin boys. Then he said he knew something of the children."
"Said he knew somethin' on 'em!" ejaculated the old frontiersman. "What does he know?"
"One day Silver Cloud met a rich Frenchman, who had been drinking deeply. The Frenchman talked much and Silver Cloud gathered from his talk that he had been bitter against a rich Englishman. There had been a quarrel over some land, either in England or in New France"—(meaning Canada). "The Frenchman declared that he had had his revenge, and had had the man's two children,—little boys that were twins,—stolen, and that they had been taken to Virginia,—where they had perished in a snow-storm, along with a man who had picked the twins up."
"It must be Tom and Artie!" cried Dave. "What else did Silver Cloud tell?"
"Not much, save that the twins had been the pride of their father's heart, and that the father had been heartbroken over their disappearance, which he laid to the Indians."
"Did that Frencher tell his name, or the name of the man who had lost them twins?" demanded Barringford.