that they're not caught 'em."

"Why are you so sure?" Mrs. Welch asked. "They may be dead by this
time."

"Not they, ma'am! I'm as sartin as they're living and free as I am
that I'm standing here. I know these Injuns' ways. Ef they had caught
'em they'd jest have brought 'em here and would have fixed up two
posts, jest out of rifle range, and would have tied them there and
offered you the choice of giving up this place and your scalps or of
seeing them tortured and burned under your eyes. That's their way.
No, they aint caught 'em alive, nor they aint caught 'em dead
neither; for, ef they had they'd have brought their scalps to have
shown yer. No, they've got away, though it beats me to say how. I've
only got one fear, and that is that they might come back before the
Injuns have gone. Now I tell ye what we had better do--we better keep
up a dropping fire all night and all day to-morrow, and so on, until
the redskins have gone. Ef the young uns come back across the lake at
night, and all is quiet, they'll think the Injuns have taken
themselves off; but, if they hear firing still going on, they'll know
well enough that they're still around the house."

William Welch at once agreed to this plan, and every quarter of an
hour or so all through the night a few shots were fired. The next
morning no Indians could be seen, and there was a cessation of the
dropping shots which had before been kept up at the house.

"They may be in hiding," Pearson said in the afternoon, "trying to
tempt us out; but I'm more inclined to think as how they've gone. I
don't see a blade of that corn move; I've had my eyes fixed on it for