“Shush! clap a stopper on your mouth, cappen,” said Grummidge in an undertone, “the redskins are listening.”
“An’ what then? They know no more about English than I know about Timbuctoosh,” returned the captain irascibly. “Let ’em listen! What I was a-goin’ to say is, are you an’ the other lads ready to follow me into the woods an’ bolt if we can, or fight to the death if we can’t?”
“Sure an’ I’m ready to fight,” interposed Squill, “or to follow ye to the end o’ the world, an’ further; but if I do I’ll have to leave my legs behind me, for they’re fit for nothin’. True it is, I feel a little stronger since your friend Hendrick got the bastes to increase our allowance o’ grub, but I’m not up to much yet. Howsiver, I’m strong enough p’r’aps to die fightin’. Anyhow, I’ll try.”
“So will I,” said Little Stubbs. “I feel twice the man I was since you found us.”
“Putt me down on the list too, cap’n,” said Fred Taylor, who was perhaps the least reduced in strength of any of the prisoners. “I’m game for anything short o’ murder.”
Similar sentiments having been expressed by his other friends, the captain’s spirit was somewhat calmed.
Leaving them he went into the woods to ponder and work out his plans. There he met Paul and Hendrick.
“We are going to visit the prisoners,” said the former.
“You’ll find ’em in a more hopeful frame of mind,” observed the captain.
“I wish they had better ground for their hopes,” returned his friend, “but Bearpaw is inexorable. We are to have a final meeting with him to-morrow. I go now to have a talk with our poor friends. It may be that something in their favour shall be suggested.”