squatters.' We won't
own the land we settle upon except that we shall have bought it of the
Indians; and that is a deed which the government will not recognize. But
we will have to take our chances of making our title good when the time
comes, though we may have to pay a second time to the men or company, or
whoever secures from the government the territory where we shall be. Or
we might settle near enough to General Putnam's colony to be able to buy
land of them. We must wait and see what is best to do."

"Ree," said John, earnestly, "I know you are right; you always are. But I
don't like to think of those things--only of the hunting and trapping and
fixing up our place, and eating wild turkey and other good things before
our big fire-place in winter--and all that. You see we will have to sort
of balance each other. You furnish the brains, and I'll do the work."

"Oh that sounds grand, but--" Ree laughed and left the sentence
unfinished.

When, by the sun, their only time-piece, the boys judged they had been an
hour and a half in camp, they resumed their journey. They had secured so
early a start that morning, that they had no doubt they would reach the
Three Corners, the next stopping-place designated on Captain Bowen's map,
before night; and indeed it lacked a half hour of sundown when they drove
up to the homely but pleasant tavern at that point. It was so different a
place from the Eagle tavern that the boys had no fear when they went to
bed, that the unpleasant experience of the night before would be
repeated.

Several days followed unmarked by any special incident, except that the
lads were delayed and a part of their goods badly shaken up by their cart
upsetting into a little gully. Fortunately, however, little damage was
done.

At the end of two weeks so thinly settled a country had been reached that
nearly every night was spent in camp. Yet these were not disagreeable nor
was there much danger. Only one man who answered the general description
of a "cut-throat" had been seen, and he seemed inclined to make little
trouble. He rode out on a jet black horse from a barn, near which a house
had at one time stood, its site still marked by charred logs and a
chimney. Perhaps it had been burned in the war-time; at any rate the
place had a forsaken, disagreeable appearance, and the rough-looking
stranger emerging suddenly from the barn, put the young emigrants on
their guard at once.

For two hours the man rode