“We can fight them off, I feel certain,” said another of the settlers. “So all we will have to do will be to go easy on the rations till General Greene gets here.”
“Yes, that is what we’ll do,” said Perkins.
Tom and Ben were greatly interested. This was the first time they had ever had anything to do with fighting Indians, and they were glad that they had come down into this region of the Cherokees, for there was a peculiar glamour to this kind of warfare that did not attach to fighting against the redcoats.
“Dick will miss most of the fighting by going on the trip,” said Tom.
“Yes, but there will be plenty of Indian fighting after he gets back,” said Ben.
“Yes, likely. And it will be a great relief to the people of this part of the country when the patriot soldiers get down here and get after the redskins.”
“Yes, so it will.”
About the middle of the afternoon there was seen to be considerable stir among the Indians to the northward, near the edge of the forest, and Mr. Holden, who, with Perkins and two or three others of the settlers, and Tom and Ben, were standing on the platform, watching, said:
“Look. There’s that renegade-Tory, Gabe Gurley.”
Sure enough, a white man was seen standing among the redskins, and it could be seen that he was an exceedingly large man, a giant in size, in fact. He was talking to the Indians, and gesticulating, and they were listening with evident interest.