Although Jim was frightened, he did not forget what Pa had said when they found Wahbunou in the woods. Had it been a trick? Were these Indians some of Wahbunou’s people? Was this the thanks the Hudsons received for caring for him?
Chapter III
AN EXCHANGE AT THE SALT LICK
The Indians dragged Jim and his father rapidly through the woods until the Hudsons thought they could go no farther. They were happy to reach a small clearing where more Indians were waiting with their women, children and extra horses. To Jim’s relief he saw his mother still sitting on their old Nellie.
During her ride, Ma’s usually neat blond hair had fallen down over her shoulders. Half a dozen women were crowding around her, fingering her hair and talking excitedly to each other. When they caught sight of Jim’s towhead, they laughed and ran their fingers over his hair, too.
Several men were going through the peddler’s pack of food. After one look, they dumped the turnips on the ground. But the meat they carefully repacked.
Pa tried to smile reassuringly at Ma and Jim, but one of the men clapped him on the head, picked him up as though he were a feather and dumped him head down across a horse. Then the Indian climbed on behind him. In a moment a second man had done the same to Jim. At once the band rode off with their three white prisoners toward the north.
About dusk they stopped for the night by a small stream. Pulling the Hudsons from their horses, they tied Pa and Jim to one tree, Ma to another. Several women began making fires and filling kettles with water; while other women prepared supper. The children laughed and scampered in and out of the stream. The men paid no attention to their three white prisoners, but sat quietly along the bank of the stream, talking in very low tones.
Jim’s head ached so badly from his jolting, upside-down ride through the woods that he could scarcely see. He was glad, though, that his parents were still with him. He looked at the half-grown children playing around the camp, expecting to see Wahbunou, but the boy was not among them.