Those in the dug-out exchanged looks of astonishment. “Ask him if he is sure?” said Stonor.
Etzooah persisted in his statement. “I not speak him for cause I hiding in bush watchin’ bear. And he is across the river. But I see good. See white face. I know him because he not paddle like Kakisa one side other side; him paddle all time same side and turn the paddle so to make go straight.”
“Where had he been?”
“Up to Horse Track, I guess.”
Horse Track, of course, was the trail from the river to Fort Enterprise. The village at the end of the trail received the same designation. If the tale of this visit was true it might have something to do with the hostility they had met with above.
“But we have just come from the Horse Track,” said Stonor, to feel the man out. “Nobody told us he had been there.”
Etzooah shrugged. “Maybe they scare. Not know what to say to white man.”
But Stonor thought, if anything, they had known too well what to say. “How long had he been up there?” he asked.
“I not know. I not know him gone up river till see him come back.”
“Maybe he only went a little way up.”