"Ez I'm telling you right now, Cap'n John, we made one more blunder in this here onfall of our'n, owin' to our having ne'er a seventh son of a seventh son amongst us to look a little ways ahead. Where we flashed in the pan was in not making our rendyvoo down yonder where you and Cap'n Dick got in. Ever' last one of 'em able to crawl is a-making straight for that crivvis dodge-hole right now, and if we was there we could do 'em like the Gileadites did the men o' Ephraim at the passages o' the Jordan." Fresh as I was from the torture fire, I could not forbear a shudder at this old man's savagery. "Kill them in cold blood?" I would say. "Anan?" he queried, as not understanding my point of view; and I let the matter rest. He was of those who slay and spare not where an enemy is concerned. But when we came to consider of it there seemed to be no alternative to the eastward flitting by way of the Great Trace. To the west and south there was only the trackless wilderness; and to the north no white settlement nearer than that of the over-mountain folk on the Watauga. I asked if we might hope to reach this. "'Tis a long fifty mile ez the crow flies, over e'enabout the mountainousest patch o' land that ever laid out o' doors," was the hunter's reply. "And there ain't ne'er a deer-track, ez I knows on, to p'int the way." "Then we must ride eastward and run the risk of pursuit by the Tuckaseges," said I. "Ez I reckon, that's about the long and short of it. And I do everlastedly despise to make that poor little gal jump her hoss and ride skimper-scamper again, when she's been fair living a-horseback for a fortnight." "She will not fail you," I ventured to say, adding: "But Jennifer is in poor fettle for making speed." "It's ride or be skulped for him, and I allow he'll ride," quoth the old hunter, hastening his preparations for the start. "Reckon we can get him on a hoss right now." I went to see. Margery rose at my approach, and even in the poor light I could see her draw herself up as if she would hold me at my proper distance. "Your patient, Mistress Margery,--We must mount and ride at once. Is he fit?" "No." "But we must be far to the eastward before daybreak." "I can not help it. If you make him ride to-night you will finish what those cruel savages began, Captain Ireton." "We have little choice--none, I should say." "Oh, you are bitter hard!" she cried, though wherein my offending lay just then I was wholly at a loss to know. "'Tis your privilege to say so," I rejoined. "But as for making Dick ride, that will be but the kindest cruelty. We are only a little way from the nearest Indian towns, and if the daylight find us here--" "Spare me," she broke in; and with that she turned shortly and asked Ephraim Yeates to put her in her saddle.