“Did you slay all the palefaces?” asked Hendrick anxiously.
“No, some we slew, others we took prisoners.”
Hendrick thought it best to reserve in the meantime his communication of all this to Paul and his friends.
“I am your kinsman also,” he said to the chief, “for Trueheart is my wife. I have much to say to you, but our business is pressing. Will you walk with me while we talk?”
The chief bowed his head, and ordered his party to fall to the rear and follow, while he walked in advance with the pale-faced hunter.
Hendrick then explained to the Indian as much about the wreck of the Water Wagtail and the dismissal of Captain Trench and his comrades as he thought necessary, and then said that although his three friends were indignant at the treatment they had received from their comrades, they would be grieved to hear that any of them were to be killed, and he greatly wished to prevent that. “Would the chief guide him to the place where the prisoners were?”
“I will guide you,” said the chief, “but you will find it hard to save them. Palefaces have slain Little Beaver and stolen Rising Sun, and palefaces must die.”