ys chary of speech; now he rode onward with so
stern a face, that presently I spoke in inquiry.

"You are silent, Captain Wells," I said. "One would expect some
rejoicing, as we draw so close to the end of our long journey."

He glanced aside at me.

"Wayland," he said slowly, "I have been upon the frontier all my life,
and have, as you know, lived in Indian camps and shared in many a
savage campaign. I am too old a man, too tried a soldier, ever to
hesitate to acknowledge fear; but I tell you now, I believe we are
riding northward to our deaths."

I had known, since first leaving the Maumee, that danger haunted the
expedition; yet these solemn words came as a surprise.

"Why think you thus?" I asked, with newly aroused anxiety, my thoughts
more with the girl behind than with myself. "Mademoiselle Toinette
tells me the Fort is strong and capable of defence, and surely we are
already nearly there."

"The young girl yonder with De Croix? It may be so, if it also be well
provisioned for a long siege, as it is scarce likely any rescue party
will be despatched so far westward. If I mistake not, Hull will have
no men to spare. Yet I like not the action of the savages about us.
'T is not in Indian nature to hold off, as these are doing, and permit
reinforcements to go by, when they might be halted so easily. 'T would
ease my mind not a little were we attacked."

"Attacked? by whom?"

He faced me with undisguised surprise, a sarcastic smile curling his
grim mouth. His hand swept along the western sky-line.

"By those red spies hiding behind that ridge of sand," he answered
shortly. "Boy, where are your eyes not to have seen that every step we
have taken this day has been but by sufferance of the Pottawattomies?
Not for an hour since leaving camp have we marched out of shot from
their guns; it means treachery, yet I can scarce tell where or how. If
they have spared us this long, there is some good Indian reason for it."

I glanced along that apparently desolate sandbank, barely a hundred
feet away, feeling a thrill of uneasiness sweep over me at the
revelation of his words. My eyes saw nothing strange nor suspicious;
but I could not doubt his well-trained instinct.

"It makes my flesh creep," I admitted; "yet surely the others do not
know. Hear how the Frenchman chatters in our rear!"

"The young fool!" he muttered, as the sound of a light laugh reached
us; "it will prove no jest, ere we are out of this