“Black devils in a pipe! Howard’s Creek will have to go to making bows and arrers!”
“I’ve brought twenty pounds of powder and ten of lead from Salem,” I added. “Howard’s Creek is welcome to it after I’ve outfitted myself.”
“Hooray! That ends that cussed trip. Twenty pounds! Wal, I declare if there won’t be some rare killings! Now I’ll hustle right back along with you. I’ve felt all the time that some one would be gitting hair that belonged to me if I come off the creek. Ten pounds of lead! Seven hundred little pills! That’ll let Runner, Hacker, Scott ’n’ me strike for the Ohio, where we can catch some of them red devils as they beat back home. They’ll be keerless and we oughter nail quite a few.”
“Crabtree isn’t going with you?”
“Ike ain’t got no stummick for a reg’lar stand-up fight. He’ll hang round the creek and kill when he catches a red along.”
“He’ll get no powder from my stock to use around the creek,” I declared.
Hughes eyed me moodily.
“What odds where they’re killed so long as they’re rubbed out?” he harshly demanded.
“Women and children are the odds,” I retorted. “Crabtree kills friendly Indians. Even young Cousin, who hates reds as much as any man alive, won’t make a kill in a settlement unless the Indians are attacking it.”
“That’s the one weak spot in Cousin,” regretted Hughes. “He’s a good hater. But he’d have a bigger count for that little sister of his if he’d take them wherever he finds them. It’s all damn foolishness to pick and choose your spot for killing a red skunk. And this friendly Injun talk makes me sick! Never was a time but what half the Shawnees and other tribes was loafing ’round the settlements, pretending to be friends, while t’other half was using the tomahawk and scalping-knife.