I had hardly finished my meal, and begun to feel a little rested and refreshed, before I was attracted out into the enclosure where the ladies and children, whom I had seen only the day before looking cheerful and merry, were wearing a wild, scared look as they were being hurried into the block-house, while the most vigorous preparations were carried on.
“They don’t mean to be taken by surprise, Morgan,” I said, as I ran against him, watching. “The Indians may not come after all.”
“Not come?” he said. “What! Haven’t you heard?”
“I—heard?”
“The message brought in by one of the scouts?”
I had not heard that any had been sent out, and I said so.
“The General sent them out directly, and one has come back to say that they had found signs of Indians having been about, and that they had been round by our clearing.”
“Yes! Well?” I said.
“The dead Indians were gone.”
I started at the news.