His party was not strong enough to
strike the devils, who are down from their towns in great numbers to
hunt the buffaloe, and runners have gone to the Pawnee villages for
aid. It would seem that this lad is a fearless boy, for he has been
hanging on their skirts alone, until, like ourselves, he was driven to
the grass for a cover. But he tells me more, my men, and what I am
mainly sorry to hear, which is, that the cunning Mahtoree instead of
going to blows with the squatter, has become his friend, and that both
broods, red and white, are on our heels, and outlying around this very
burning plain to circumvent us to our destruction."
"How knows he all this to be true?" demanded Middleton.
"Anan?"
"In what manner does he know, that these things are so?"
"In what manner! Do you think newspapers and town criers are needed to
tell a scout what is doing on the prairies, as they are in the bosom
of the States? No gossiping woman, who hurries from house to house to
spread evil of her neighbour, can carry tidings with her tongue, so
fast as these people will spread their meaning, by signs and warnings,
that they alone understand.
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