“I’ve been thinking so,” was the answer, “and I’m afraid they will.”
“The cabin ain’t in as good shape as it used to be; the logs dry and the roof drier! And honest to goodness, Ree, I don’t see what we’re going to do about it; I can’t help but feel but that I’m to blame for the mess, somehow, though what I ever did to get Lone-Elk down on me I don’t know, blamed if I do!”
“Why, you’re nothing of the kind, John! Get all such foolishness out of your head. And what we’re going to do about it is to be ready for them! I guess we can take care of ourselves now that we know what’s likely to happen. Actually, the thing that bothers me most is just the thought of where we’d have landed but for Fishing Bird letting us know. If ever there was an all white heart in a red skin, it’s his, and there’s no doubt about it.”
“And tomorrow we will find out from some one from the village or other Indians that happen to pass, just how the land lays—that is, if—if we don’t find out sooner,” John replied with a grim smile. “And Big Buffalo’s dead! I can hardly believe it, by thunder! I guess it was the Seneca that killed him, if anybody did. Don’t you s’pose Lone-Elk killed him, Ree?”
“Can’t tell. Off-hand I’d say it couldn’t have been any one else. It’s been common talk this long while that Lone-Elk and Big Buffalo didn’t hitch up worth a hill o’ beans, but—and hang it all, it’s this that makes the whole thing so bad a mess—we simply don’t know.”
This phase of the curious situation in which they found themselves—this air of mystery and uncertainty connected with the report and warning which had reached them, afforded a more fertile subject for discussion by the two boys than did the question of their own personal safety. The latter was a matter which must await developments, and neither boy yet realized how serious the situation was. Their quickly made agreement to hold the fort and face the trouble bravely had, for the time, disposed of that question.
But the death of the Delaware who had always been so hostile to them, and the mysterious trick of fate by which, though dead, he was still the direct cause of trouble coming just when all their plans were going forward so smoothly, and just when they were in every way getting along so comfortably, gave occasion for much speculation and exchange of ideas.
“It’s not so hard to understand why Lone-Elk should want to get rid of us and to make trouble for us,” said Kingdom reflectively, “because all summer he has been talking war and stirring things up generally.”
“And even hinting that we were sending word of what all the Delawares were doing straight to Mad Anthony at Fort Pitt,” John broke in warmly. “Fishing Bird it was that told us that, too.”
“Still I’d like to know just what took Big Buffalo off his pins,” was Ree’s reply, and so the conversation continued with no conclusion being reached excepting only that there was going to be trouble and it must be met and faced just as it had been confronted and finally overcome so many times before.