This answer was hardly more satisfactory than the first, and Jo refused to accept it as an answer at all.
"We aren't going to let you get out that way," continued the young scout; "we want a reply to the question I put to you."
Without relaxing the broad grin on his painted face, the Mohawk said:
"Lena-Wingo take over in this boat, if want to go."
Jo was half angry, and was on the point of saying something impatient, when his sister interfered.
"Lena-Wingo has answered your question, Jo; he says that he will take us across in this boat, if we want him to, and I'm sure that is as plain an answer as any one could ask for."
"It isn't as clear as I want, but if you are satisfied I'm certain that Ned and I are also, and have nothing more to say."
"I am not afraid to trust myself in this boat with him, for I am convinced he wouldn't undertake it if he wasn't confident he could accomplish the voyage. So go ahead, Lena-Wingo, for there has been so much delay that we'll never get across if we wait much longer."
This settled the question, and the preparations for the embarkation followed immediately. The scow was shoved off a little from the shore, so that the combined weight would not make it too difficult to move it. Then Rosa took her place in the furthest part, and her brother and lover did the same. Lena-Wingo waited till all had arranged themselves, when he forced the craft clear of the land, and sprang lightly into it, as it was still moving away into the stream.
The handling of a pole is not an occupation to which the Indians, as a general thing, are trained, and it was not to be expected that the Mohawk would display anything like the skill which he possessed in the management of the paddle. But Lena-Wingo was one of those individuals, occasionally seen, who seem to take naturally to any kind of physical exercise, and he controlled the rather awkward implement in a way that excited more than one commendatory remark from the two youths who were watching him.