"If I could only 'a' been there! But I was 'way off at St. Paul. I knew something was wrong when the letters stopped."
"But you must buck up, Jamieson," said the colonel, "so you can help us."
"How'd you get down here?" asked Lounsbury.
"I didn't eat for a long time. I was crazy. The snow blinded me, and I was hungry. But I didn't leave the river—I knew enough for that—they found me."
"You think the women are alive, Colonel?" asked the storekeeper.
"Undoubtedly, and with the other half of the very band we've got here—somewhere up in the Big Horn country." He took a turn up and down the room.
"May I ask your plan?"
"We are in fine shape to talk terms to the captors. I'll send a command to them, demanding the women. If they are not surrendered, I'll hang four of the redskins I've got here, Lame Foot, the medicine-man, and Chiefs Standing Buffalo, Canada John, and Shoot-at-the-Tree—all ringleaders. Then the rest of the band will be put on a reservation. If the Jamieson women are alive, and they send 'em in, I won't hang the chiefs."
"When'll the command start?"