'Well, I don't know any other way to account for such a thing. Do you?'
Clarence did not answer this question directly: 'But,' he objected desperately, 'those were converted Indians. They went to church, and the Lyceum, and all that!'
Uncle Lambert shrugged his shoulders: 'Once an Indian always an Indian!' he said. 'They must have their fling now and then, I suppose, and then the old Adam crops up. And you see,' he added, 'it cropped up in that attack on you the other night. Fortunately for us, and indeed for the whole country, you were prepared for them—otherwise no one can tell what horrors we might not have seen.'
'We may—we may see them yet!' said the hero, gloomily. 'Just look at this, Mr. Jolliffe.'
Lambert took the bark from him, and read it with a thoughtful frown. At last he said:
'Well, I rather expected something of this sort when I saw you posting up all those insulting notices—Indians are so confoundedly touchy, you know.'
'You might have said that at the time, then!' exclaimed the General reproachfully.
Lambert lifted his eyebrows.
'My dear chap, I thought you knew. Wasn't that what you were all driving at?'
'Not me,' said Clarence. 'I was against it from the first. I told them it was caddish to insult a fallen foe, but they would go and stick up those beastly notices.'