Colonel Preston could not avoid a certain nervousness over the attempt of the Wyandots to fire the building, and, though it failed, he half suspected it would be repeated.
He descended the ladder and made as careful an examination as possible, but failed to find anything to add to his alarm and misgiving. Everything seemed to be secure: the fastenings of the doors were such that they might be considered almost as firm as the solid logs themselves.
While he was thus engaged, he heard some one coming down the ladder. "Who's there?" he asked in an undertone.
"I'm not scared; I only wanted to know who it is; what are you after?"
"I'm going out-doors, right among the varmints."
"What has put that idea in your head?"
"They've been playing their tricks on us long enough, and now I'm going to show them that Jo Stinger knows a thing or two as well as them."
Colonel Preston would have sought to dissuade the veteran from the rash proceeding, had he not known that it was useless to do so.