“You’re right,” agreed Holden, “but look at that terribly black cloud over to the north. There is going to be a storm and that right quick or I miss my guess.”
The Indians, having finished setting fire to all the houses, retired to a little distance, squatted down on the ground, and watched the structures burning.
Then, when the buildings had burned down, the redskins began dividing the plunder they had secured from the houses, and when this was finished, they advanced as close to the fort as they dared. Here they stopped and held a council, of some sort, evidently trying to decide upon some plan for getting into the fort and at the settlers.
They talked and gesticulated at a great rate, and were apparently not agreed, or at a loss to determine upon any further procedure.
“I don’t think there is much danger of their making an attack during daylight,” said Holden, when they had watched the redskins a while.
“No, but they’ll try to get into the stockade to-night, without any doubt,” said Perkins. “Unless,” he added “that storm drives them away. Somehow the Indians don’t seem to notice its coming at all.”
“They are lower down in the gulch and perhaps do not see about as well as we do up here,” said another.
The other men all thought the same, but while they did not expect an attack before nightfall, yet they did not relax their vigilance. They kept their eyes on the enemy.
“I wish that General Greene would come down this way, with his army,” said another of the settlers.
“Mebby he will come down here,” said another. “I heerd that he is up in North Caroliny.”