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Then, satisfied by the scrutiny he opened his hunting frock, taking forth a long object which he thrust toward Metzar. It was an Indian arrow. Metzar's dull gaze traveled from this to the ominous face of Brandt. "See there, you! Look at this arrow! Shot by the best Indian on the border into the window of my room. I hadn't been there a minute when it came from the island.
Instantly from somewhere in the darkness overhanging the road, came a low, warning whistle. "A signal!" exclaimed Colonel Zane. "Quick, Eb! Look toward Metzar's light. One, two, three, shadows Injuns!" "By the Lord Harry! Now they're gone; but I couldn't mistake those round heads and bristling feathers." "Shawnees!" said the borderman, and his teeth shut hard like steel on flint.
"Last count there were one hundred and ten men at the fort," he replied thoughtfully. "I know over a hundred, and can trust them. There are some new fellows on the boats, and several strangers hanging round Metzar's." "'Pears to Lew an' me that this fellar is a slick customer, an' one who's been here long enough to know our hosses an' where we keep them." "I see.
"Now, Will, what do you think of that? Isn't it real sisterly regard? Come, we'll go and look at my thoroughbreds," said Colonel Zane. "Where is Jonathan?" Helen asked presently. "Something happened at Metzar's yesterday. Papa wouldn't tell me, and I want to ask Jonathan." "Jack is down by the spring. He spends a great deal of his time there.
Zane. "Papa said he left Fort Pitt with one of Metzar's men as a guide." "Then he didn't take the 'little cuss, as Eb calls his man Case?" "No, if I remember rightly papa said Case wouldn't go." "I wish he had. He's no addition to our village." Voices outside attracted their attention. Mrs. Zane glanced from the window and said: "There come Betty and Will."
"Buzzards!" he said, with a dark, grim smile. "Mebbe Brandt has begun our work. Come." Out into the open they crawled to put to flight a flock of huge black birds with grisly, naked necks, hooked beaks, and long, yellow claws. Upon the green grass lay three half-naked men, ghastly, bloody, in terribly limp and lifeless positions. "Metzar's man Smith, Jenks, the outlaw, and Mordaunt!"
But that, Helen acknowledged with a smile, was the only argument she had. To be sure Brandt had looked capable of anything, the night Jonathan knocked him down; she knew he had incited Case to begin the trouble at Metzar's, and had seemed worried since that time. He had not left the settlement on short journeys, as had been his custom before the affair in the bar-room.
The point was clear; either she must remain in the settlement hoping for Jonathan's return in time to frustrate Brandt's villainous scheme, or find the borderman. Suddenly she remembered Metzar's allusion to a second person whom Brandt felt certain he could trust. This meant another traitor in Fort Henry, another horse-thief, another desperado willing to make off with helpless women.
They started trouble immediately. The Englishman, his name is Mordaunt, hunted up the Sheppards and as near as I can make out from George's story, Helen spoke her mind very plainly. Mordaunt and Case, that's his servant, the little cuss, got drunk and raised hell down at Metzar's where they're staying. Brandt and Williams are drinking hard, too, which is something unusual for Brandt.
I don't mind saying that he spoke of you to me in a tone I never heard Lew use before." "He did?" questioned Joe, eagerly, flushing with pleasure. "Do you think he'd take me out? Dare I ask him?" "Don't be impatient. Perhaps I can arrange it. Come over here now to Metzar's place. I want to make you acquainted with him. These boys have all been cutting timber; they've just come in for dinner.
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