"Won't you come in, sir, and rest a few minutes?"
The strange, blue-gray eyes glanced restlessly toward the hill and he signaled his sons:
"Rest awhile, boys."
Frederick and Oliver sat down on a pile of logs. Salmon and Owen, at a nod from their father, wandered carelessly toward the stable and outhouses.
Owen found the dog Doyle had brought from Virginia and took pains to make friends with him.
Brown's keen, restless eyes carefully inspected the door, its fastenings and the strength of its hinges. The iron of the hinges was flimsy. The fastening was the old-fashioned wooden shutters hung outside and closed with a single slide. He noted with a quick glance that there was no cross bar of heavy wood nor any sockets in which such a bar could be dropped.
The windows were small. There was no glass. Solid wooden shutters hung outside and closed with a single hook and eye for fastenings.
The sun was setting before the surveying party stopped work. They had run a line close to the house of every Southern settler on the Pottawattomie Creek, noting carefully every path leading to each house. They had carefully mapped the settlement and taken a census of every male inhabitant and every dog attached to each house. They also made an inventory of the horses, saddles and bridles.
Having completed their strange errand, they packed their instruments and rode toward Osawatomie.