“It must come to that, sooner or later,” replied the latter, “and I don’t see the need of putting the thing off. Them Injins have got to lose about half their number, and get most eternally lammed before they’ll holler ‘enough.’ I go in for giving them particular fits when we undertake to do it.”
“There have been rumors that Colonel Clark is to march against them with his Kentucky Rangers. Do you know whether such is the case?”
“I think he will—since this battle he will be compelled to. I hope the colonel will do it, for he ain’t the man to order his men to retreat when they get the upper hand of the red cowards.”
“Provided they do get the upper hand,” smiled the minister.
“Oh, no danger about that. The colonel understands Indian fighting, and he’ll show some of it, too, when he undertakes it.”
“Something better than their last colonel, I hope. Umph!—couldn’t be any worse,” remarked Captain Parks, who had just come.
“Wal, mistakes will sometimes happen,” said the scout in extenuation; “and I s’pose that Colonel Sandford’s was one of them; but that don’t shift the blame, for all that. He made the blunder, and would, like as not, do it again, and consequently he ain’t fit to go into Injin ground.”
“The Wetzel brothers render great service to the settlement, I understand,” observed the minister.
“They are regular teams. If they’ll let Lew Wetzel manage matters, there’ll be no mistake made; he knows all about Injin ways.”
“The Shawnees, I believe, are causing the most trouble?”