“Wal, I reckon yer’d a bin too,” the boy stuttered angrily.  “I ain’t never seed no Injuns afore.”

“An’ don’t wanter ever see no more, I reckon.  Hell!  I don’t hanker after eny myself.  Howsumever, it’s whut he seed an’ heerd, Cap, thet sounds mighty queer ter me.  He sez thar wus mor’n fifty bucks in thet party, an’ that ol’ Black Hawk wus thar hisself, a leadin’ ’em’—­he done saw him.”

I turned, surprised at this statement, to stare into the boy’s face.  He half grinned back at me, vacantly.

“Black Hawk!  He could scarcely be down here; what did he look like?”

“‘Bout six feet high, I reckon, with a big hooked nose, an’ the blackest pair o’ mean eyes ever yer saw.  I reckon he didn’t hav’ no eyebrows, an’ he wore a bunch o’ eagle feathers, an’ a red blanket.  Gosh’ Mister, but the Devil cudn’t look no worse’n he did.”

“Wus thet him, Cap?” burst in Tim, anxiously.

“It’s not a bad description,” I admitted, yet not convinced.  “I can’t believe he would be here with a raiding party.  If he was, there must be some important object in view.  Is that all?”

“No, ’tain’t; the boy swears thar was a white man ’long with ’em, a feller with a short moustache, an’ dressed in store clothes.  He wan’t no prisoner nuther, but hed a gun, an’ talked ter Black Hawk, most like he wus a chief hisself.  After the killin’ wus all over, he wus the one whut got ’em ter go off thar to the south, the whole kit an’ kaboodle.  Onct he spoke in English, just a word, er two.  Asa cudn’t make out whut he sed, but ’twas English, all right.”

“I don’t doubt that.  There have always been white renegades among the Sacs and plenty of half-breeds.  Those fellows are more dangerous than the Indians themselves—­more savage, and revengeful.  If Black Hawk, and this other fellow are leading this band, they are after big game somewhere, and we had better keep out of their way.  I favor saddling up immediately, and traveling all night.”

“So do I,” and Tim flung a half-filled bag from his shoulder to the ground.  “But I vote we eat furst.  ’Tain’t much, only a few scraps I found out thar; but it’s a way better then nuthin’.  Here you, Hall, give me a hand, an’ then we’ll go out, an’ round up them hosses.”

If the party of raiding Indians, whose foul deed we had discovered, had departed in a southerly direction, as their trail would plainly seem to indicate, then our safest course would seemingly be directed eastward up the valley.  This would give us the protection of the bluffs, and take us more and more out of the territory they would be likely to cover.  All this I explained to Eloise as we struggled with the hard bread, and a few strips of smoked bacon.  Most of the bag had held corn meal, but no one suggested a fire, as we were glad enough to possess anything which would still the pangs of hunger.  Eloise, filled with sympathy, attempted to converse with Hall, who ate as though half-starved, using hands and teeth like a young animal, but the boy was so embarrassed, and stuttered so terribly, as to make the effort useless.  Within twenty minutes we were in saddle, descending the steep hillside through the darkness, Tim walking ahead with the lad, his horse trailing behind, and the long rifle across his shoulder.