The eyes of the two boys met in a startled look; and it could be plainly seen that they were deeply moved by the discovery Sandy had made, close to the dead ashes of the abandoned fire.
CHAPTER XXIV
A NEW HOME ON THE MISSISSIPPI
“The little box in which mother kept her few treasures!” exclaimed Bob.
“And our wampum belt, which Pontiac presented to us with his own hands!” echoed Sandy, as he once more let his gaze rest on the object he had discovered, thrown aside in the grass near the ashes of the deserted fire.
“Those rascally French traders have been right here on this spot, brother,” remarked Bob, glancing around, and unconsciously half-raising his gun, as though he partly expected to see the vicious faces of Jacques Larue and Henri Lacroix peering at them out of the undergrowth.
“And only a day or two ago, just think of that!” exclaimed Sandy, a sudden glow coming into his face. “Oh! what if, after all, we should have the great good luck to meet the robbers some fine day; wouldn’t we demand that they return our property, though? And if so much as one single thing belonging to our dear mother were missing, they would have to account for it!”
But Bob shook his head. He did not possess the same sanguine spirit as his younger brother, and consequently could not see things in the same light.
“It is true they have been here, and lately, too,” he remarked, seriously; “but you must not allow yourself to hope too much that there is any chance for our meeting them. We are far below the mouth of the Ohio River now; and the fact of their having been here seems to say that even now these Frenchmen may be on their way down to the town their countrymen have started on the lower waters of the Mississippi, and which they call New Orleans.”