“You mean it is as safe to go forward as to turn back?”
“Don’t it look thet way?”
“Maybe. But we are a little closer to Fort Pitt than we are to Fort Cumberland.”
“Thet’s true too. But I don’t reckon the Injuns will dare to go as far east as Cumberland—not after the lickin’ they got at Bushy Run.”
“The band that did this can’t be the band that tried to surround us.”
“No, they are another tribe, I think.”
“Then the forest must still be full of wandering bands, and we are not near as safe as we thought we were.”
“We’ve got to make the best on’t, Rodney. We must travel as fast as we can and keep our eyes peeled more’n ever before. It’s the only way out, so far as I kin see.”
The bodies of the slain were placed in a hollow, with some flat stones on top, to keep off the wolves and other wild beasts. The place was marked on the trees. A few of Banoggin’s possessions were taken along and the others left where they had fallen.
“Poor fellow, he will never want anything in this life again,” murmured Rodney, brokenly. And when the trader died they placed his body away with those of his followers. Fortunately he had been a bachelor, so there would be no widow or child to mourn his loss.