“Ask anything you want?” replied the colonel gallantly.
“Did the Indians ever bury anything under stones?”
“Did the Indians ever bury anything under stones?” repeated the colonel. “You mean the bodies of their dead? Customs varied as to that. Some tribes buried their dead in the ground, some left them on mountain tops unburied, and some wrapped the bodies and placed them in trees.”
“I don’t know whether I mean people or not,” said Hinpoha, and told about finding the marked rock in the ravine.
“It is barely possible that something is buried there,” said the colonel, “although rocks have been marked for a good many reasons.”
“It seemed such a good place to hide something,” said Sahwah shrewdly. “The ravine itself was dark and hard to get into, but it was easy to find your way back to it if you had been there once, because all you had to do was keep on going until you had 125 passed seven big cedar trees. If we picked our way through the woods by that trail, other people probably have done the same thing. Maybe the Indians buried something there they intended to come back after, and marked the rock they put it under.”
“Possibly,” said the colonel doubtfully. “A great many Indian relics have been dug up around the shores of these lakes; arrow heads, pieces of pottery and ornaments of various kinds. Such things might have been buried before a hasty flight and never recovered.”
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was something buried under that rock, and we should go there and dig it up!” said Hinpoha, half starting up in her excitement.
“Mind, I’m not saying there is anything buried there,” said the Colonel hastily. “I only said it was remotely possible. The Indians have been gone from this region for so long that it is not safe to speculate upon anything they might have left. I only know that from time to time things have been found accidentally.”
“Do you think we’d better dig?” asked Hinpoha eagerly.