and woe betide the one who dared to offer her harm or insult in their presence!
"I say, father, how much further ahead is that creek we've got to cross?" asked Jim, in a free and easy manner, as he would have spoken to an equal.
"Well, sonny, it must be nigh on to ten mile."
"Won't get over afore morning then?"
"Don't expect to, as you see it's well along in the after noon."
"Let's see—we've come over forty mile, hain't we?"
"Yes, Jim, nearer fifty."
"Well, we're that much nearer the settlement, that's certain. If we get over the creek without much trouble with the oxen, we may fetch up there by sundown, eh?"
"That's the expectation, I believe."
"Provided, of course, the Injins don't make trouble."
"Sh! not so loud, Jim," continued Harry. "They might hear us in the wagon, and I don't s'pose you'd want to scare Edith, when there's no need of it."
"I should like to see any one try that same thing on 'em. They'd be somebody else scared, I reckon. But, father," asked Jim, in an earnest whisper, "how is it about the Injins? We haven't seen a sign of one yet, and that's what gets me."
The parent and his children fell a few yards further behind, and commenced conversing together in suppressed voices.
"I tell you what, boys," said the father, "it won't do to expect to get through without hot work. I've been talking with the scouts, and they think the same. I believe a number are following us, and waiting only for the proper place to come in upon us."
"Where do you suppose that will be?"
"The creek!"
"Shouldn't wonder if 'twas," said Harry, in a matter-of-fact tone; "if we only had the women-folks out the way, we might count on some tall fun. I wish Edith was taken care of."
"That's the deuce of it. I should think she got enough of the imps last autumn, when the Riflemen left her at our house; but that's the Injin, especially the Shawnee part of it. If there's any chance to get scalps with long hair, they're bound to do it. However, boys, it won't do to lose heart."
"That's the fact, father, and I reckon none of this crowd intend to do that thing just now. Sam, in front, isn't likely to get asleep, is he?"
"No danger of him. They say he never shuts both eyes at the same time."
"I'll answer for them on the sides of the road," added Harry. "If there's a greasy Shawnee in a mile, Jake Laughlin will scent him. You mind the time, Jim, when he went with us over into Kentucky, and he saved us from running into that ambush?"
"'Tain't likely I'll ever forget it, being I got my arm bored with some of their lead."
"Well, that affair satisfied me that Jake Laughlin understands as much as it is worth while to understand about Injin deviltries, and that he ain't likely to be blind when there's so much to practice eyesight on."
"I'd give our yoke of oxen this minute, if I could only set eyes on Lew Dernor and his boys, the Riflemen of the Miami," said the parent. "They've been long together, as I s'pose, and have been in more Injin fights and scrimmages than any men living, and yet not one of them has been grazed by a bullet. There's Tom O'Hara, whose legs are so short that he's about as tall when he sits down as he is when he stands up, and yet, I'll be hanged if he isn't the luckiest one of the lot. They're a wonderful set of boys, are those Riflemen."
"Father," said son Jim, with a meaning smile, "you remember the night that Lew brought Edith to our house?"
"Of course I do."
"Didn't it strike you that he acted queerly then?"
"What do you mean? I don't understand you. I noticed nothing."
"I did. I saw how he watched Edith, and I made up my mind that he was in love with her! Since then I've found out it was so!"
"Why, Jim, I never dreamed of such a thing. He hasn't been to our house since to see her."
"Just because he is in love! I've met him in the woods a dozen times since, and by the way in which he questioned me, I'd been a downright fool if I hadn't understood him."
This avowal seemed to trouble the father, as he bent his head; and, for a while, nothing further was said. But Jim, who had little reverence for sentiment or romance, added, in a meaning voice:
"That isn't all, father."
"What else have you to tell?"
"That Edith loves him!"
"Thunder! I don't believe it."
"Well, I can't say positively that she does; but I know she likes him, and if Lew Dernor has a mind he can get her. You don't appear to like it, father."
"I don't care much, but the gal seems so like my own da'ter, being I never had any, that I should hate despritly to lose her."
"Fudge! it's got to come to that sooner or later, and who could she get better than Lew Dernor, the leader of the Miami Riflemen?"
"None, that's the fact, but——"
A footstep attracted their attention, and looking up, they saw Jake Laughlin step into view. He raised his hand, as if to command silence, jerking his thumb at the same time significantly toward the wagon and the rest of the settlers. He stepped carefully into the wagon-track, and the father and sons halted.
"It's so," said he, nodding his head several times.
"Are you sure?"
"I've seen sign a half-dozen times since noon."
"Shawnees, I s'pose?"
"Yes. There are plenty of them in the woods."
"What are they waiting for?"
"The chance. There ain't enough, and we're too wide awake to allow them to attack us at present. They're waiting to take us off our guard or to get us at disadvantage. I've an idee where that'll be."
"The creek?"
"Most certainly. There's where the tug of war will come, and I think if we should encamp to-night without a guard there would be no danger of attack from the Shawnees."
"Are you going to warn others?"
"Not until night, I think, as there is no necessity for it."
"Well, we don't need to tell you to be on the look-out. You know we've got a lot of women-folks to take care of."
"Never fear."
With this, Laughlin stole back into the wood, as cautiously as he had emerged from it, and the father and his sons quickened their pace in order to gain the ground they had lost. As they resumed their places in the rear of the wagon, no one would have suspected from their actions and appearance, that they had been conversing upon a subject so important to all.
It was about the middle of the afternoon, and the emigrant-party plodded patiently forward, chatting and conversing upon ordinary topics with such pleasantry and zest that no one would have suspected the least thought of danger had entered their heads. So long as the silence of the scouts continued, the emigrants knew there was no cause for alarm. Should danger threaten, they would be warned in time.
An hour later, as they were proceeding quietly along, the near report of a rifle broke upon their ears. Every face blanched, and every heart beat faster at the startling signal of danger. This it meant, and nothing else; and the members of the company instinctively halted, and made a partial preparation for an attack. They had scarcely done so, when Laughlin, with his cat-like tread, stepped in among them.
"What made you fire, Jake?" asked Dravoond, one of the leaders of the party.
"Me fire? I haven't pulled trigger