"Rev. J. Downs. Greeting.
"Your brother is alive and safe. Whispering Winds rescued him by taking him as her husband. Leave the Village of Peace. Pipe and Half King have been influenced by Girty.
"Zane."
"Now, what do you think of that?" exclaimed Jim, handing the message to Edwards. "Thank Heaven, Joe was saved!"
"Zane? That must be the Zane who married Tarhe's daughter," answered Edwards, when he had read the note. "I'm rejoiced to hear of your brother."
"Joe married to that beautiful Indian maiden! Well, of all wonderful things," mused Jim. "What will Nell say?"
"We're getting warnings enough. Do you appreciate that?" asked
Edwards. "'Pipe and Half King have been influenced by Girty.'
Evidently the writer deemed that brief sentence of sufficient
meaning."
"Edwards, we're preachers. We can't understand such things. I am learning, at least something every day. Colonel Zane advised us not to come here. Wetzel said, 'Go back to Fort Henry.' Girty warned us, and now comes this peremptory order from Isaac Zane."
"Well?"
"It means that these border men see what we will not admit. We ministers have such hope and trust in God that we can not realize the dangers of this life. I fear that our work has been in vain."