id the old backwoodsman; but neither Dick nor I would agree to this
_in toto_. Dick argued that while we were killing time in the roundabout
advance we should be leaving Margery wholly at the mercy of the baronet,
and that every hour of delay was full of hideous menace to her. Hence he
proposed that three of us should carry out the hunter's plan, leaving
the fourth to take the hint given by the charred stick and the swimming
ambush crew, and so penetrating to the valley by the stream cavern, be
at hand to strike a blow for our dear lady's honor in case of need.

"'Tis a thing to be done, and I am with you, Dick," said I. This before
Ephraim Yeates could object. "Should there be need for any, two blades
will be better than one. If it come to blows and we are killed or taken,
Yeates and the chief must make the shift to do without our help."

As you would guess, the old hunter demurred to this halving of our
slender force, but we over-persuaded him. If all went well, we were to
rendezvous on the scene of action to carry out the plan of rescue. But
if our adventure should prove disastrous, Yeates and Uncanoola were to
bide their time, striking in when and how they might.

Touching this contingency, I drew the old man aside for a word in
private.

"If aught befall us, Ephraim,--if we should be nabbed as we are like to
be,--you are not to let any hope of helping us lessen by a feather's
weight the rescue chance of the women. You'll promise me this?"

"Sartain sure; ye can rest easy on that, Cap'n John. But don't ye go for
to let that rampaging boy of our'n upsot the fat in the fire with any o'
his foolishness. He's love-sick, he is; and there ain't nothing in this
world so ridic'lous foolish ez a love-sick boy--less'n 'tis a love-sick
gal."

I promised on my part and so we went our separate ways in the gathering
darkness; though not until the lashings of the packs had been cut and
the powder and lead, save such spoil of both as Ephraim Yeates and
Uncanoola would reserve, had been spilled into the river. As for the
bodies of the dead Indians, the old hunter said he would let them ride
till he should come to some convenient chasm for a sepulcher; but I
mistrusted that he and the Catawba would scalp and leave them once we
were safely out of sight.

At the parting we took the river's edge for it, Richard and I, keeping
well under the bank and working our way cautiously down the gorge until
we were stopped by the pouring cr