Roland. "I believe this, Dick, that if those kidnapping revengeful Indians had meant murder they would have slain the dear child in bed and not have resorted to all that horrible trickery--instigated without doubt by somebody. She has been taken to the country of the cannibals, but not to be tortured. She is a slave, let us hope, to some Indian princess, and well-guarded too. What we have got to do is to trust in God. I'm no preacher, but that is so. And we've got to do our duty and rescue Peggy."
Dick. "Dead or alive, Roland."
Roland. "Dead or alive, Dick. But Heaven have mercy on the souls of those who harm a hair of her head!"
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Dick did his best to trust in Providence, but often in the middle watches of the night he would lie in his tent thinking, thinking, and unable to sleep; then, after perhaps an uneasy slumber towards morning, awake somewhat wearily to resume the duties of the day.
[CHAPTER XVII--BILL AND HIS BOATS]
Roland, young and inexperienced as he was, proved himself a fairly good general.
He certainly had not forgotten the salt, nor anything else that was likely to add to the comfort of his people in this very long cruise by river and by land.
They knew not what was before them, nor what trouble or dangers they might have to encounter, so our young heroes were pretty well prepared to fight or to rough it in every way.
Independent of very large quantities of ammunition for rifles and revolvers, Roland had prepared a quantity of war-rockets, for nothing strikes greater terror into the breasts of the ordinary savage than these fire-devils, as they term them.