“No,” said he. “We’ll never be able to move in that direction now. It must be alive with Indians.”
“Too bad,” said Jack. “And we were just on the edge of it, too.”
“What do you think we’d better do?” asked Frank.
“Well, we can’t go back to Tennessee,” replied the young borderer. “That would be as dangerous as trying to locate the land marked on your chart. About the only thing I can see for the present, at least, is to make our way south to Mobile, and halt there for a while until this excitement among the redskins dies out.”
“Good,” said Frank. And the Cherokee hunter grunted his approval.
So from that time on their attempt was not in the direction of Tallapoosa, but toward the fort which stood overlooking the bay at Mobile.
This they searched after a tremendous effort through the wild country; and when they appeared at the stockade, they were stared at in amazement.
“Well, youngsters,” greeted a bluff old officer, who seemed to be in command, “where did you come from?” And when they told him, and related some of their experiences, he and the group of soldiers and frontiersmen who had grouped about opened their eyes still wider.
“Well,” said the commandant, shaking his head, “you’ve had great good fortune, lads. The country you’ve just come out of must be as thick with excited Injuns as a hive is with bees. I wouldn’t venture in there with less than five hundred men.”
Mobile and the section thereabouts was fairly well defended, and had little to fear from an uprising of the Indians alone.