“Yes. Now I kin see it. One, two, three, four, five, six. We wuz right in the number an’ it’s a big fine canoe, jest the canoe we want, Henry, an’ it’ll land ’bout twenty yards ’bove us. Somethin’ tells me our chance is comin’!”
“I hope the something telling you is telling you right. In any case you’re correct about their landing. It will be almost exactly twenty yards away.”
The great canoe emerged from the darkness, six powerful Miamis swinging the paddles, and it came in a straight line for the bank, leaving a trailing yellow wake. Henry admired their strength and dexterity. They were splendid canoemen, and he never felt any hatred of the Indians. He knew that they acted according to such guidance as they had, and it was merely circumstances that placed him and his kind in opposition to them and their kind.
The light but strong craft touched the bank gently, and the six canoemen stepped out, a figure that appeared among the bushes confronting them. Henry, with a thrill, recognized Blackstaffe, and the canoe must have arrived on an errand of importance or the renegade would not have been there to meet the six warriors.
“You will come into the camp and hear the reports of the scouts,” said Blackstaffe, speaking in Miami, which both Henry and the shiftless one understood perfectly. “It will take some time to do this, because not all of them have returned yet. Then two of you had better go back with the canoe, while the others stay here to help us. I think we have these five rovers trapped at last, and we’ll make an end of ’em. They’ve certainly caused us enough trouble, and I’m bound to say they’re masters of forest war.”
One of the warriors tied the canoe to a bush with a willow withe, and then all six following Blackstaffe disappeared among the trees, going toward the campfire.
“At least Blackstaffe compliments us before sending us to the next world,” whispered Henry.
“Ez fur me,” Shif’less Sol whispered back, “I ain’t goin’ to no next world, jest to oblige a villyun renegade. Besides, I like this wilderness o’ ours too much to leave it fur anybody. They think they’re mighty smart an’ that they’re plannin’ somethin’ big right now, but all the same they’re givin’ us our chance.”
“What do you mean, Sol?”
“Didn’t you hear the villyun say that two o’ the warriors wuz to go back with the boat?”