“It’s jest like the dirty sneak,” burst out Barringford, who sat by dressing his wound. “I know the cap’n well. He’s an oily talker and smooth, but a reg’lar snake in the grass with it. But I allow this will teach him and his kind a lesson.”
“But it may bring us into trouble with the French government,” said Dave.
“What of it, lad? The trouble’s been a bilin’ and a bilin’, and it’s got to come sooner or later. Let it come, say I, and the sooner it does the sooner it will be over. They can put down stakes and nail lead plates to the trees all they please, but that won’t make this country theirs. The land belongs to the Indians and to their English brothers; ain’t that so, White Buffalo?”
“My brother the great hunter speaks the truth,” responded the Indian chief. “War is coming. Old Garudah hath foretold it and what Garudah says will surely come to pass.” Garudah was an old Delaware squaw, the daughter of Shannarion the medicine-man, and much believed in as a prophetess.
White Buffalo did not wish to remain at the trading-post and after a hearty breakfast he and his braves departed, taking with them the scalps of all the enemies that had been slain. They had lost two warriors and these they buried according to their Indian custom.
The day proved a busy one to those left at the post. The wounded were cared for and the dead buried. Out of the garrison Larrison and one Indian were dead, and three were wounded but none seriously. The Indian was placed beside White Buffalo’s followers and the old hunter was buried on a slight knoll overlooking the brook. Dave read the burial service in a voice choked with emotion, and later on made and erected a rude cross over the grave, with Larrison’s full name painted upon it.
CHAPTER XXII
WASHINGTON’S MISSION TO FRENCH CREEK
When James Morris arrived at the homestead of the Morris family he was received with open arms by his brother and his sister-in-law, and Henry and little Nell. All were glad to see him and wished to know immediately about Dave.
“He arrived safe and sound with Sam Barringford,” said James Morris. “And he has done so well that I have left him and Sam in charge at the post.”
Then he asked about poor Rodney and was told that the operation had proved a great success and that the youth was mending rapidly. Later on he went in to have a long talk with the sufferer which Rodney much enjoyed, for visitors were scarce, and the family’s stock of books was so small that he had had nothing new to read for fully six months.