“Cheer up, Thomas, cheer up!” cried John. “You’ve been about as cheerful company as a box of indigo ever since you saw that—that hideous thing at Big Buffalo’s belt.”
“Well, it’s a wonder the’ didn’t nothing happen, an’ somethin’s goin’ to happen, I know,” the hunter replied to Ree’s question, ignoring John’s bantering, as he often did. “That Buffalo varmint means harm. I’ve been thinkin’ it all over an’ the’ ain’t no two ways about it. If I ain’t a sight mistaken, I seen him peekin’ down from the hill back there, not a half hour ago—either him or some dirty Mingo; I didn’t exactly see him, but I heard some one, an’ I’d a’ peppered away at him if you kittens hadn’ ’a been gone an’ me not knowin’ just where ye might be. So I’ve been thinkin’ it all over, an’ mighty sorry I am I ever piloted ye into this hostyle kentry. The’s only one thing to do, an’ that’s to take what stuff ye kin an’ get back to Pittsburg fast as yer legs kin take ye. Now as fer me, I kin take care of myself, but I’ll see ye part way anyhow, an’ I’d go clear back with ye if I didn’t have somethin’ very important to ’tend to.”
Ree could not help but smile at Tom’s drooping spirits, though the discouraging talk made it necessary for him to appear really more cheerful than he felt, as he realized that Big Buffalo really seemed anxious to cause trouble. But he shook his head at John, as he saw the latter about to scold Tom for bringing them into this part of the wilderness only to advise them to leave it; for his chum’s face showed that he was not pleased with Tom’s manner.
“There is just one thing to be done,” Ree exclaimed.
“An’ that’s get right back—” Tom Fish was saying.
But the youthful leader of the party interrupted: “Go back? No, sir! The one thing to do is to go forward, and take our goods with us without further loss of time. We will get a good, stout cabin up and then we’ll be better prepared for trouble if it comes. And that prowler, you heard, Tom, must have been the same cowardly wretch who shot old Jerry. We must watch for him. We cannot be too careful, but if he is the same fellow who fired on us and nearly killed Black Eagle’s son, ’way back on the Pennsylvania border, I think I can guess who it is, and I can tell you, he is a coward. But let’s get to work.”
“I like yer spunk, lad, an’ I like you, but what I want to say is, that Tom Trout as some calls Fish, will stick by ye till ye get some sort of a shack throwed up, anyhow.”
“Bully for you, Tom! And bully for you, too, Ree,” exclaimed John springing up to begin whatever task awaited him. “I was beginning to get away down in the mouth, the way Tom was talking a minute ago.”
“We must take the goods out of the cart and pack them in convenient shape for carrying,” Ree directed, without further ado. “By dragging a few things forward a hundred rods or so, then coming back for more and so on, we should reach the river in a couple of days.”
And so all fell to work with a will. The cart did not contain a heavy load, as it would have been impossible for old Jerry to have hauled it through the woods, up hills, across streams and boggy places. But when it came to carrying forward everything except the cart, which must be abandoned, without the aid of a horse, the task was found to be a most laborious one.