"
"Shall I send Indians with you, too?"
"Not now. They are useless now. They could trail nothing. Let me go."
He followed like a father. "You will come back?"
"Yes, I will come back."
But I had three things to do before I was free to go to the woods. To
go to the woods where I would find the woman.
I searched for the Miami slave woman. She was dead. That cut my last
hope of news.
I saw that Pemaou was still well bound, and I had him carried into a
hut to await my orders.
I went to Pierre's body. Singing Arrow still wailed beside it, and
cried out that it should not be moved. I told her the soldiers would
obey her orders, and carry it where she wished.
But there was a fourth matter. I spoke to Dubisson, and my tongue was
furry and cold.
"See that watch is kept on the bags of scalps for European hair."
Then I went to the woods.
CHAPTER XXXI
THE UNDESERVED
There were birds in the woods, and soft breezes. Squirrels chattered
at me, and I saw flowers. And sometimes I saw blood on trampled moss
where fugitives had been before.
I called, and fired my arquebus. I whistled, for that sound carried
far. Since that day the sound of a whistle is terrible to me.
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