"Is his heart glad that Wa-on-mon will meet him?"
"His heart flows with joy," replied Finley, with deep depression that such should be the truth, over the prospect of so shocking an event.
"He will not run away?"
"Did he do so yesterday?" was the stinging question of the missionary, which struck the Shawanoe hard; "he is so afraid he will not be at the rock in time that he has gone there to await the coming of Wa-on-mon; he is there now; Wa-on-mon will find him when he goes thither."
"Wa-on-mon will be there when the sun rises from its bed; he will not keep the white hunter waiting."
"And the pale-faces that have crossed to the other side of the river will tarry there till the missionary returns to them."
"My brother speaks with a single tongue," remarked The Panther, thereby uttering another strong tribute to the integrity of his visitor.
"Does he not always speak with a single tongue?" asked Finley, feeling warranted in pushing the chieftain, now that the all-important question had been settled.
"He does," was the prompt response of the fiery sachem, who thereby plumply contradicted what he had said a short time before.
This, in a certain sense, might have been gratifying to the missionary, had not his knowledge of Indian nature told him unerringly the cause of the exultant mood of The Panther. Simply, he was gratified at the prospect of meeting the white man in mortal combat, for he held not a shadow of doubt that the career of Kenton was already as good as ended. An hour or so, and the famous ranger would vex the red men no more.