"Just what I said before," replied his brother, between his set teeth, as still another crash of thunder made the woods echo with its roll. "We have only one plan to follow, then. Blue Jacket is of the same opinion; for I talked it over with him this morning. We must push straight on for the Great Lakes, and try to waylay the party before they reach their village."
"A desperate chance," groaned Sandy.
"But we said we would never give up until the last gasp, Sandy. You forget, too, that we have a good and wise friend at work for us," Bob went on, cheerfully.
"You mean Pat O'Mara?" replied the other, quickly. "Yes, I did forget. I am too apt to be hasty, I fear. Oh! I do hope he may be able to snatch Kate from the power of the young chief, Black Beaver. But why should he have stolen her at all? Kate is only a child, too young for any one to want to have for a squaw."
"I have been thinking about something Blue Jacket told me," said Bob.
"Then please let me know, too, for I am all in a mix," pleaded his brother.
"He said that he knew Black Beaver had only a short time ago lost a little sister by some disease. He told me that the old squaw, his mother, sat day by day out where the child was laid away, after the custom of the Indians, the body being sewed up in many thicknesses of buffalo skins, and placed on a platform, where the wolves could not reach her."
"Yes, I saw an Indian graveyard when I was a prisoner among the Shawanees, and it was just as you say," declared Sandy, eagerly. "I know that daily the squaws come to talk with the spirits of those who are gone. I saw them placing earthen bowls of succotash on the ground, believing that the steam that arose was spirit food, since it vanished, and no one knew where it went." ([Note 5.])
"Blue Jacket said that Black Beaver cared much more for his sister than most Indians do," Bob continued, between the angry growlings of the thunder; "and that he feared the old squaw would lose her mind if she kept on mourning. Now, you remember how he looked at our sister Kate when he came in for a supply of tobacco and maize? I really believe he had a sudden idea flash into his mind when he saw how pretty she was."
"Now I understand what you mean," cried Sandy, excitedly. "He believed that our Kate might take the place of the sister that was dead! They would color her skin, and teach her to forget that her people were the hated palefaces. Bob, I believe you are right; and somehow the thought gives me much comfort, for then our little Kate will not suffer harm at the hands of Black Beaver and those with him."