"Yes, he ventured too near their lines, a courier told me, and was killed."
"I am glad of that."
"Yes, it puts him out of your way as a rival; but possession is nine points of the law, and Red Hatchet has Jennie in his power, and the fool believes that the redskins will whip the soldiers."
"All of them do, and their medicine men tell them that the ghost shirts will render them bullet-proof."
"Fools! poor deluded fools! But I must get the girl, and, perhaps, I can persuade the chief to bury the hatchet—yes, it would be better so, for Miles knows what he is about and has got them hemmed in completely, and if the soldiers attack they will remember Custer and his men, and show no mercy—yes, and avenge Kit Carey, too, for he was the most popular officer in the army," said Vance Bernard, believing that it was Kit Carey who had been killed, as did the Sioux themselves, and also many in the army.
"Well, can you rescue Jennie?" impatiently asked the young man.
"Yes, and I will go to-night and do so," was the confident response of the settler.