“It was the Indians, they said they was Indians.”
“Who?” cried the Missourian quickly.
“The men,” answered the child.
“The Indians told you that, did they? Well, they was real obliging.” He turned to Jim. “I'm having doubts about these heah Indians.”
“Look here, son, what was your idea about them redskins?” asked Jim.
The child did not answer him, but there came a sudden flash of intelligence to his pinched little face which the instant before had been quite expressionless in its abject misery. It was plain he understood what the man meant when he spoke of the Indians; then he smiled slyly, cunningly.
“What I want to know,” said Jim, “is how he got away from them.”
“That's so, son, how do you happen to be heah?”
“The Indians fetched me here,” answered the child readily enough.
“And left you heah?”