"Then, sir, I'll answer it to the best of my knowledge and belief. It is this: the Angry Snake came to the settlement, and saw our stores of powder and shot, and every thing else. He would have attacked us last winter if he had found an opportunity and a chance of success. One of his band was killed, which taught him that we were on the watch, and he failed in that attempt: he managed, however, to pick up the boy when he was lagging behind us, at the time you were wounded by the painter, and carried him off, and he intends to drive a bargain for his being restored to us. That is my conviction." "I have no doubt but that you are right, Malachi," said Alfred, after a pause. "Well, we must make a virtue of necessity, and give him what he asks." "Not so, sir; if we did, it would encourage him to steal again." "What must we do then?" "Punish him, if we can; at all events, we must wait at present, and do nothing. Depend upon it we shall have some communication made to us through him that the boy is in their possession, and will be restored upon certain conditions--probably this spring. It will then be time to consider what is to be done." "I believe you are right, Malachi." "I hope to circumvent him yet, sir," replied Malachi; "but we shall see." "Well; but, Malachi, are we to let this be known to any body, or keep it a secret?" "Well, sir, I've thought of that; we must only let Martin and Strawberry into the secret; and I would tell them, because they are almost Indians, as it were; they may have some one coming to them, and there's no fear of their telling. Martin knows better, and as for the Strawberry, she is as safe as if she didn't know it." "I believe you are right; and still what delight it would give my father and mother!" "Yes, sir, and all the family too, I have no doubt, for the first hour or two after you had told them; but what pain it would give them for months afterward. 'Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,' as my father used to read out of the Bible, and that's the truth, sir. Only consider how your father, and particularly your mother, would fret and pine during the whole time, and what a state of anxiety they would be in; they would not eat or sleep. No, no, sir; it would be a cruelty to tell them, and it must not be. Nothing can be done till the spring, at all events, and we must wait till the messenger comes to us." "You are right, Malachi; then do as you say, make the communication to Martin and his wife,--and I will keep the secret as faithfully as they will."