“There’s one thing that mustn’t be forgot: Colonel Briggs and his folks won’t make any trouble, but we’re not done with them Injins.”
“Isn’t there likelihood that Colonel Briggs will divert them?” asked the parson.
“No; for the redskins can’t be fooled; they’ll know it wasn’t any of the colonel’s folks that give their chief his walkin’ papers, but us, and they’re the sort of people that don’t forget a thing of that kind.”
“I was thinking of hunting up enough wood to start a fire,” said the captain; “but we don’t need it, and I suppose it will be safer without it.”
“It seems to me,” observed Ruggles, “that what we’ve got the most to fear is that the Injins will run off with our animals: we would be left in a bad fix.”
“We must look out for that; I’ll stand guard the first part of the night.”
Each was ready to take his turn, and it was arranged 285 that Captain Dawson should act as sentinel until midnight, when he would awake Vose Adams, who would assume the duty till morning. Soon afterward, the three wrapped themselves in their blankets and stretched out on the ground, near the boulders, where they speedily sank into deep slumber.
It seemed to Adams that he had slept less than an hour, when the captain touched him. Rising immediately to a sitting position, he asked:
“Is it midnight?”
“It’s a half hour past.”