"You're worse than Hughes and those other fools. You even hate a poor white man who has been held prisoner by the Indians. He comes back to his people and you welcome him by telling him he's a renegade. Shame on you!" "No call for that sort of talk to Ward at all!" denounced Davis. "What call had Ward to say he was a fool?" loudly demanded one of the young men. "I shouldn't have said that," I admitted, now much ashamed of my hot-headedness. "I'll say as much to Ward when I see him next. If he'd look and act more like a white man then I'd keep remembering that he is white. But I shouldn't have said that." "Morris, that's much better," said Dale. "I'll tell him what you said and you needn't eat your words a second time in public. I admire you for conquering yourself and saying it." Uncle Dick did not relish my retraction, and his near-sighted eyes glared at me in disgust. "Too much talkin'. Scouts oughter be out. Our friends, th' killers, have quit us." Glad to be alone, I volunteered: "I'll scout half the circle, striking west, then south, returning on the east side." Moulton, a quiet, soft-spoken fellow, but a very demon in a fight, picked up his rifle and waved his hand to his wife and little girl and trotted in the opposite direction, calling back over his shoulder: "I'll go east, north and half-down the west side." I finished on the north leg at the point where Moulton had commenced his scout. I made no discoveries while out. I walked to the fort and was glad to see that Moulton had but recently come in. I returned to the Davis cabin and passed behind it. So far as I could observe no sentinels had been posted on the east side of the clearing. In front of the cabin burned a big fire and there was a confusion of voices. I gained a position at the end of the cabin, and from the shadows viewed the scene. It was old to me, but new to Patsy, and she was deeply interested. The young men had erected a war-post, and had painted the upper half red. Now they were dancing and cavorting around the post like so many red heathens, bowing their heads nearly to the ground and then throwing them far back. They were stripped to the waist and had painted their faces, and as they danced they stuck their axes into the post and whooped and howled according to the Indian ceremony of declaring war. "I don't like it!" I heard Dale protest. "But the boys only wanted Patsy to see how the Injuns git ready for war," defended Mrs. Davis. "An', lor'! Ain't she all took up by it!" "But it's the way the border men declared war after the murder at Yellow Creek," declared Dale. "They stripped and painted and struck the post and danced around it." "They'll be through mighty soon now, Ericus," soothed Davis, who was uneasy between his fears of displeasing his wife's cousin and giving offense to the young men. "They meant well." "All such actions mean ill for the settlers," growled Dale. "They'd best finish at once."