"White Lightning," he said, "you know the forest as the bird knows its nest. What would you advise me to do?"
The soothing words appealed to Timmendiquas and he replied:
"I will send some of my warriors to trail them from the spot where your man was taken, and do you send soldiers also to take them when they are found. It is my business to make war upon these rangers from Kentucky, and I will help you all I can."
De Peyster, who felt that his honor was involved, left the lodge much more hopeful. It was intolerable that he, a soldier and a poet, should be insulted in such a manner by four wild woodsmen, and he selected ten good men who, following two Wyandot trailers, would certainly avenge him.
Henry heard the details of Private Doran's misadventure from Lieutenant Holderness, who did not fail to do it full justice.
"I should not have believed it," said the young Englishman, "if the facts were not so clear. Private Doran is not a small man. He must weigh at least one hundred and eighty, but he is gone as completely as if the earth had opened and swallowed him up."
Henry smiled and pretended to take it lightly. At heart he was hugely delighted at this new proof of the prowess of his friends.
"I told you what they were," he said. "They are keeping their promises, are they not?"
"So far they have, but they will reach the end very soon. The Chief Timmendiquas, the tall one, who thinks he is as good as the King of England, has furnished two Wyandot trailers—they say the beggars can come pretty near following the trail left by the flight of a bird through the air—and they will take a detachment of ten good men against these four friends of yours."
The prisoner's eyes sparkled. It did not seem to Holderness that he was at all cast down as he should be.