“The Little Deer sent you when I prayed,” said the Jumper.
“The Little Deer will help no man who is being punished by the Lucky Hunter. The bad medicine has worked itself weak. Kanati forgives you. The Little Deer forgives you. Has the little girl got her new tooth yet?”
The Jumper’s doleful features lighted up. Hope gleamed in his small eyes, and his strong chest expanded as he began to feel himself a warrior once more, a man of the Deer, unafraid because the gods were smiling. The reference to his child caused him to fairly beam with gratitude.
“She looks many times in the glass Tsan-usdi gave her. She know it will bring a big, strong tooth. Ah! It is good to know the Lucky Hunter is no longer angry.”
“Then suppose we get to dry land and clean up,” Sevier suggested, taking his rifle and rising. “And why did the Jumper come out here alone?”
“I was sent to kill a bad white man.”
“But I am the only white man here.”
“I was told a bad white man was between our warriors and the smoke signals of the Creeks. I saw birds flying away when the sun went down yesterday. I believed the bad white was here. I waited till sunrise and came. I found—my friend.”
Sevier led the way to the spring where they cleaned themselves and the borderer’s garments. This done Sevier inquired—
“Where is Old Tassel?”