The messenger smiled, and stepped to the side of his companion, to whom he said a few words in a tone that failed to reach the ears of the watchers on the river bank.
To his communication Wiaquil replied, and looked up at Jack.
“The trail from Arrow-Head’s lodge to Mouseh’s cave is hard to travel,” he said. “Wiaquil and his brother saw the sun and the stars, and now they would sleep awhile that they may be refreshed for the war-path against the blue-coats.”
Jack turned and held a short council with his chiefs, after which a number left the cave, until the great Modoc and Hooker Jim alone remained.
The Curly-Headed Doctor had mysteriously disappeared with his patient.
“Our brothers will rest here,” said Jack, describing a circle with his hand. “Mouseh hopes that they may not be disturbed, for no braves shall enter the cave while they lie here. The Modocs have departed to watch the blue-coats, for the sun is high in the heavens now. Hooker Jim will sleep in the mouth of yonder hole, and the lightest step will touch his ear.”
Then the Modoc touched the hands of his guests again, and chivalrously bade them good-night.
With a nonchalance simply remarkable, the runners doffed their blankets, and spread them on the ground; then they laid their Spencers between their robes, and threw themselves upon the latter.
Hooker Jim looked on all the preparations for slumber with an unsuspicious eye, and laid down in the mouth of the corridor, in whose dark recesses Jack and his braves had disappeared.
Watchful eyes regarded the tableau revealed by the flickering fire, and after an hour’s silence Donald McKay turned to Artena.