But, by degrees, the time passed. They had no means of telling the hour save as the shadows lengthened; the sun-dial they depended on was the dropping of the glowing day god behind the western horizon. And, when it became apparent that the twilight had actually changed into darkness, Sandy breathed a sigh of satisfaction in his brother's ear.
"Now it cannot be long!" he declared. "Once darkness settles over the land, and surely Kenton will bid us depart from this place, which I never want to see again; for I have lived and grown old here. But, oh! I only; hope there will be plenty of wind! There, he has gone out to see how things look. Let us pray he returns to tell us the wind has risen."
CHAPTER XXVI
THE WAR DANCE
"What of the weather?" asked Sandy, as soon as Simon Kenton once more entered the cavern.
"So far there is good reason to hope," replied the borderer, cheerfully.
"You could not make me happier than by saying that!" cried the young pioneer, the anxious expression vanishing from his face. "Then we can expect to get away from here, and start things moving at the village of Kiashuta? May we go now?"
"Not for several hours," said Kenton, shaking his head.
"But the wind may die out by then; or something else might happen to upset all our plans?" urged the boy.