We would have gone without speaking even to the wounded, but that, just as Master Bartlett took up his musket to set off, Esther Hinchman came toward me, and I was only too glad to meet her. “You will remember, Jonathan Ogden, that while there are helpless ones left here on the mountainside your life belongs to them. Daniel has told me how eager you are to be off in the aiding of those who may be suffering. He believes, and so does Master Morley, that your efforts will be vain, because there are none left alive needing assistance, therefore I know full well you will have an encounter with the savages.” “Ay, that is what we hope for. There is a price which they must pay in blood for what has been done, and until the debt is collected I am hoping no man or lad who once called our valley his home may be willing to remain idle.” “But you will remember that there is a debt which you owe us who are here.” “Meaning that I shall lag behind when there is work to be done?” I said with a laugh, and she replied, taking my hand with a caressing gesture which pleased me wondrously: “Not so, Jonathan Ogden, for even though you promised it, I would not believe you could keep such word. I am not asking you to stay here, but that you remember those whom you leave behind.” CHAPTER XV. A FORTUNATE FIND It heartened me more than I can tell to know that Esther Hinchman had singled me out to say that which she did. If she had spoken to Giles as well as me, then would I have known beyond question that her anxiety was concerning all who might be needed to defend the cave; but she had picked me from the others, and, without being able to say exactly why, I rejoiced thereat. Turning my head just before passing the fringe of bushes which concealed the entrance to our place of refuge, I saw that she was looking after me, and I waved my hand, wishing most fervently it was possible to put into words the thoughts which were in my heart. Until we had travelled two miles or more, no word was spoken between us who had set off on a scout with the hope of finding some of our neighbors and friends whose lives might yet be saved, and then it was that Master Bartlett came to a halt. “Why do you stop this side of the river?” I asked, impatiently, for I was burning as never before with the desire to accomplish that which would prove to Esther Hinchman I was a lad only in years, that I might be depended upon to perform a man’s work. “Because it is well we understand exactly why we have come,” Master Bartlett replied in a tone which provoked my curiosity, and Giles March said, sharply: “I thought that much was already agreed upon; surely we made talk enough concerning it before setting out.” “Ay, lad, what we would have the others believe was well threshed out; but at the time there was another idea in my mind which seemed of more importance, although I could not give it words lest all the able-bodied of our company insisted on holding with us.”