But the camp had been busted and
robbed and the other men wuz gone."
"Gone where?"
Tom shook his shaggy head.
"Nobody never knowed ter this day--reckon the Injuns scalped 'em----"
He paused again and a dreamy look overspread his rugged face.
"Like they scalped your own grandpa that day."
"Did they scalp my grandpa?" the Boy asked in an awed whisper.
"That they did. Your Uncle Mordecai an' me was workin' with him in the
new ground, cleanin' it fur corn when all of a sudden the Injuns riz
right up outen the ground. Your grandpa drapped dead the fust shot, an'
Mordecai flew ter the cabin fer the rifle. A big Redskin jumped over a
log an' scalped my own daddy before my eyes! He grabbed me an' started
pullin' me ter the woods, an' then, Sonny, somethin' happened----"
Tom looked at the long rifle in its buck's horn rest and smiled:
"Old 'Speakeasy' up thar stretched her long neck through a chink in the
logs an' said somethin' ter Mr. Redskin. She didn't raise her voice much
louder'n a whisper. She jist kinder sighed:
"_Kerpeow!_"
"I kin hear hit echoin' through them woods yit. That Injun drapped my
hands before I heerd the gun, an' she hadn't more'n sung out afore he
wuz lyin' in a heap at my feet. The ball had gone clean through him----"
Tom paused again and looked for a long time in silence into the glowing
coals.
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