'I wonder if the Bogallala torture prisoners,' Jack observed; 'I don't think I could stand that.'
The General came to the tent-door at this: 'Can't you fellows shut up?' he said fiercely. 'They'll hear you!'
'They're not here yet—we shall know when they come, by the signalling—let's all keep quite quiet for a minute or two.'
There was a breathless interval of silence. At last Jack said: 'I hear something—a sort of low grunting noise, like pigs.'
'Perhaps it is the pigs at the farm,' suggested Guy.
'Indians can imitate all kinds of birds, I know,' reasoned Jack, not directly to the point, perhaps, but he was getting excited.
Tinling felt a dull rage against the other two. How dared they pretend not to be afraid? It was all swagger—he knew that very well. Various unpleasant recollections began to rise in his mind. He remembered how that Indian spy had stalked the settler's cabin at Earl's Court. He could see him now, stealing over the sand, then listening with his ear to the ground, and turning to beckon on the ambushed warriors. He even remembered the way the yellow and red striped blinds of the log hut flapped in the wind, and how the horse that was hobbled outside raised his head from his hay, and pricked his ears uneasily, as the foe came gliding nearer and nearer. Then their way of fighting—he had thought it rather comic then—they hopped and pranced about like so many lively frogs, but the butchery would not be rendered any more agreeable by being accompanied by laughable gestures! And there was an almost naked light-yellow savage, whom he recalled dancing the war dance—he tried not to think of all this, but it came vividly before him.
'S-s-h—Cave!' cried Guy, suddenly, as he looked through the loophole; 'I can see just the top of one's head and feathers among the currant bushes. I'll touch him up in a second.'
He raised his tiny spring pistol, and was just aiming, when Tinling, almost beside himself, darted on him, and struck it out of his hand. 'What are you doing now?' he said, through his teeth. 'What is the good of irritating them?'
'Why, they are irritated,' said Guy, 'or they wouldn't come.'