“I believe you are right, Malachi.”
“I hope to circumvent him yet, sir,” replied Malachi; “but we shall see.”
“Well; but Malachi, are we to let this be known to anybody, or keep it a secret?”
“Well, sir, I’ve thought of that; we must only let Martin and the Strawberry into the secret; and I would tell them, because they are almost Indians, as it were; they may have someone coming to them, and there’s no fear of their telling. Martin knows better, and as for the Strawberry, she is as safe as if she didn’t know it.”
“I believe you are right; and still what delight it would give my father and mother!”
“Yes, sir, and all the family too, I have no doubt, for the first hour or two after you have told them; but what pain it would give them for months afterwards! ‘Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,’ as my father used to read out of the Bible, and that’s the truth, sir. Only consider how your father, and particularly your mother, would fret and pine during the whole time, and what a state of anxiety they would be in! they would not eat or sleep. No, no, sir, it would be a cruelty to tell them, and it must not be. Nothing can be done till the spring at all events, and we must wait till the messenger comes to us.”
“You are right, Malachi; then do as you say, make the communication to Martin and his wife, and I will keep the secret as faithfully as they will.”
“It’s a great point our knowing whereabouts the boy is,” observed Malachi, “for if it is necessary to make a party to go for him, we know what direction to go in. And it is also a great point to know the strength of the enemy, as now we shall know what force we must take with us in case it is necessary to recover the lad by force or stratagem. All this we gained from the letter, and shall not learn from any messenger sent to us by the Angry Snake, whose head I hope to bruise before I’ve done with him.”
“If I meet him, one of us shall fall,” observed Alfred.
“No doubt, sir, no doubt,” replied Malachi; “but if we can retake the boy by other means, so much the better. A man, bad or good, has but one life, and God gave it to him. It is not for his fellow-creature to take it away unless from necessity. I hope to have the boy without shedding of blood.”