“I think we ought to keep a closer watch than ever, especially at night.”
“We’ll do it. I’ll organize the men into a reg’lar guard.”
Barringford was as good as his word, and, realizing the danger, the men around the post readily agreed to take turns at watching. Dave, of course, joined the guard, and stood his three hours every other night with the rest. This was the best that could be done with the number of men on hand at the time.
The second night that the youth was out was muggy and rainy, and he wore an oiled skin cape to protect himself from the downpour. He had relieved a man named Pothers, and was to guard from eleven o’clock to two, when Sam Barringford would come to his relief.
The guard had formed a beaten path, leading around the stockade, up and down both the river and the creek, and in and around the stables and the log house itself. The distance covered was over a mile and each guard was supposed to cover the ground at least once an hour.
As Dave tramped slowly around the stockade, with the water streaming steadily from his cape, he could not help but think what a disagreeable night it was, and how much nicer it would be in bed than out there in the rain. “The Indians don’t like rain any better than I do,” he reasoned. “Nobody will come to-night.”
Yet though he reasoned thus, he did not relax his vigilance and when he moved up and down the river and the creek he kept his eyes and ears wide open.
It was almost two o’clock, and he was wondering when Barringford would come to relieve him, when struck by a sudden impulse, he resolved to take another walk down the river. The rain was now beginning to let up, and a rising wind was sending the dark clouds scuttling swiftly across the face of the sky.
Reaching the end of the walk below the trading-post, he came to a halt close to the edge of the stream, which was already rising on account of the rain. Here he stood in the deep shadow of the trees looking and listening, as he had done three times before during that watch.
He was about to turn away, having beheld nothing out of the ordinary, when an unexpected movement on the stream caught his trained eye. He saw something moving in the darkness. It was coming slowly up the river, and was followed by four similar objects.