Despite their fatigue and the day’s exciting events, the woodsmen and the two boys remained awake far into the night. They were alert and watchful, however, for the older men placed no confidence whatever in the savages, and all screened themselves from sight by lying down among the bushes near which their fire was built.
Besting thus, and speaking in low tones, John told the story of his adventure and in turn heard with great interest the story of Lobb’s capture and confession. There were tears in Ree’s eyes when Jerome described the burning of the cabin, and for the first time he felt in his heart a hatred deep and endless toward the Indians as a whole.
The Sergeant and his men were astonished to learn of the many lively skirmishes the two pioneer boys had had with the savages at different times, and expressed their wonder that both had not been scalped long ago.
“Ye’ll desarve it, too, if ever ye come to these hostyle parts ag’in,” Quayle told them. “Whist! It beats all, so it do, that mere spalpeens get through where whiskers a full foot long can’t go!”
The morning came, cold and raw, with a feeling of show in the air. With some haste the little party ate a breakfast of roasted smoked meat and resumed the march toward the gully. They paused for half an hour in the clearing and Ree and John soon found Neb, sheltering himself from the wind, back of a clump of bushes. Every particle of harness had been destroyed by the fire, and only a strip of buckskin could be found wherewith to lead the horse. Neb was very docile, however, and upon his willing back a roughly fashioned pack was soon placed. It contained corn and potatoes from the fields the boys had cultivated, and various articles of baggage of which the woodsmen were glad to be relieved.
Before leaving the clearing Ree and John went again to the heap of ashes which marked the cabin site. Together they surveyed the ruins and were glad of the opportunity to speak to each other some words of sympathy their companions would not hear. As they did so, John noticed sticking in the half-burned end of a log a blood-stained tomahawk.
“Look! Lone-Elk came here!” he said.
“I declare,” returned Kingdom solemnly, “his hatred is something almost more than human. Venting his feelings by leaving that hatchet at this spot! I suppose he intends it as a warning!”
Neither boy was disposed to touch the weapon and they left it—left it and the remnants of their fallen hopes and castles among the ashes of the cabin. Ree sighed as they turned away. “But still,” he said, brightening, “we have enough to be thankful for, after all.”
It was nearly noon when the camp in the gully was reached. Apparently no one had been near since the capture of Lobb, and no reason to doubt the truthfulness of the story the guilty wretch had told could be discovered, excepting that no gold was found.