“Mary, fill his pipe, and stick it in his mouth,” said Stonor.
They heaped up a big fire, and at Stonor’s initiative, sat around it clearly revealed in the glare. He knew his Indians. At first Clare trembled, thinking of the possible hostile eyes gazing at them from beyond the radius of light, but Stonor’s coolness was infectious. He joked and laughed, and, toasting slices of bacon, handed them round.
“We can eat all we want to-night,” he said. “Tole will be along with a fresh supply to-morrow.”
Imbrie lay about fifteen paces from the fire, near enough to make himself unpleasant, if not to hear what was said. “Mighty brave man by the fire,” he sneered.
Stonor answered mildly. “One more remark like that, my friend, and I’ll have to retire you again from good society.”
Imbrie held his tongue thereafter.
Clare, wishing to show Stonor that she too could set an example of coolness, said: “Let’s sing something.”
But Stonor shook his head. “That would look as if we were trying to keep our courage up,” he said, smiling, “and of course it is up. But let Mary tell us a story to pass the time.”
Mary, having reflected that it was her own people and not ghostly visitants that had made the hideous interruption in the night, had regained her outward stolidity. She was not in the humour for telling stories, though.
“My mout’ too dry,” she said.