"She's jest like one. She's as purty and as good. No one knows whar's she has come from, or whar' she goes to. She is allers alone, and goes about in the night. She ain't afeared of nothin', while everything is afeared of her."
"How are you going to get, then, the information of which you speak?"
"Just ax her the next time I see her. She knows me, and we've often talked together. She come and told me the other night 'bout the reds comin' down this way, and said I must go up and look 'round."
"Well, Dingle, find out what you can; I've no doubt you will. Perhaps it is time we separated, as there is enough for all to do. Mansfield, I believe, wishes to speak with you. Ah! here he comes."
Mansfield approached. His inquiries at first were the same as Abbot's, and receiving the same answers, he continued:
"How soon, Dingle, do you suppose the attack will be made?"
"To-night, sir."
"So Peterson said, and I suppose you must be right. You have no fears of the result?"
"No, sir; the Shawnees always attack in the night-time. I understand their capers. Ef it wa'n't for Frontier Angel, there would be a hard scratch, for we wouldn't have been fixed up so snug for 'em. I shouldn't wonder if thar' wa'n't much fight after all, when they find how things is."
"If they are to attack to-night, they cannot be far off?"