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They heard angry cries, imprecations, and they saw one figure apparently giving commands, which they were sure was that of Francisco Alvarez. "Now if they had our Kentucky rifles and real marksmen," said Shif'less Sol, "they could pick you an' me off without any trouble. Thar's light enough. But with them old bell-mouthed muskets they can't do much.
"I'm thinking about a certain place I know, a sort of alcove or hole in a cliff above a lake." "An' me?" said Shif'less Sol. "I'm thinkin' how fur that alcove runs back, an' how it could be fitted up with furs an' made warm fur the winter." "Me?" said Tom Ross. "I'm thinkin' what a snug place that alcove would be when the snow an' hail were drivin' down the creek in front of you."
The soil on either side was as deep and fertile as that of Kentucky, and the line of the mountains cut the sky sharp and clear. Hills and slopes were dark green with foliage. "It must have been a gran' huntin' ground once," said Shif'less Sol. The alarm that the five gave spread fast, and other hunters and scouts came in, confirming it.
Pleasant odors arose from pots and kettles. The air of frolic was pervasive. The whole company was like so many boys with leave to play. Henry left Shif'less Sol and approached Adam Colfax, who was sitting alone on the exposed root of a big tree. "You found nothing, of course?" said Adam Colfax, who shared the easy feelings of his men.
"An' I'm here, too," said Jim Hart, uprearing his thin six feet four. "So am I," said Paul, as he drew himself over the rail of the Independence. "All of you alive and well!" exclaimed Adam Colfax, departing for once from his New Hampshire calm. "All returned from the dead together! I feel as if an army had come to our relief!" "We ain't been dead," said Shif'less Sol.
"The others must be near by in their canoes, and the swimmers may have been scouts and skirmishers. They know where we are, but we don't know where they are." "That's so," said Shif'less Sol, "an' it gives 'em an advantage." "Which, perhaps, we can take from 'em by moving our own boat."
"Ef ever Kentucky comes down the long river," said Shif'less Sol, "it will take bigger men than these to hold her back." Paul's gaze wandered from the soldiers, and he saw in a corner of the Place d'Armes a great wooden gallows that made him shudder.
Henry calculated that it could not go more than a dozen miles a day, since the way had to be cut for the cannon, and even if they remained where they were, the Indian army when night came, would be very little farther south than the five. "I vote we turn our short stop into a long one," said Shif'less Sol, "since, ef we went on we'd jest have to come back again.
Fortunately his tree was very close to Sol's, and they could carry on a whispered conversation. "Do you think the Shawnees will really come?" asked Paul, who was always incredulous when the forest was so silent. "Come! Of course they will!" replied Shif'less Sol. "If for no other reason, they'll do it jest to make me trouble.
It was nearly midnight, but the fires still burned in the Indian camp, warriors were polishing their weapons, and the women were cutting up or jerking meat. While they were watching they heard from a point to the north the sound of a voice rising and failing in a kind of chant. "Another war party comin'," whispered Shif'less Sol, "an' singin' about the victories that they're goin' to win."