“Confirm it now. Send men to the Miami village across the river and see what word they bring back. Don’t lose a moment. But let them be careful. Twenty Pottawatomies are here already and others are coming. Your scouts may be cut off. And hurry, hurry, hurry! Tonight you can do many things that will be impossible tomorrow. For God’s sake, Mr. Hibbs! For God’s sake----” Stickney’s voice failed him, and he staggered. Alagwa pushed a stool forward and he sank upon it and leaned forward upon the table, panting. Mr. Hibbs was recovering himself. He glanced at the faces of his boon companions and saw that Stickney’s words had carried conviction. The necessity of asserting himself came strong upon him. “Damnation!” he roared, drawing himself up. “I know my duty and I’ll attend to it without advice from you or anybody else. But I won’t be stampeded. I’ll send out and inquire among the Miamis. When I get confirmation I’ll act. But I’m not going to act on the say-so of two worthless half-Injun curs and of a greenhorn out of his head with fever. Now get out and take that scum with you.” He jerked his head at Peter and Alagwa. The listeners nodded. There was sense in the captain’s decision. After all, the reports might not be true. Stickney believed them, but he was an ill man, fever racked, likely to see things deceptively. It would be folly to break up existing conditions on his single word. Alagwa had not opened her mouth. Silently she had waited and listened. She herself was so sure of the truth of the tale that she and Bondie had brought that she had not doubted that it would bring conviction to others. And now Mr. Hibbs refused to believe it or to act upon it without delay. And delay would be fatal to herself and perhaps to Jack. Metea would come for her at dawn. Before then she must make sure of Jack’s safety. Despairingly she looked to Stickney for help, only to find him half-unconscious, shaking with fever. Clearly he was incapable of doing more. If she was to gain immediate refuge she must gain it by her own efforts. She looked at the captain and fury swelled in her bosom. Alagwa hated and loved with equal intensity, and she had hated Hibbs since the day she first saw him--the day he had scoffed at Jack. Now--now---- Recklessly she sprang forward and thumped with her clenched fist upon the table. The subservience to authority ingrained in her as in every Indian woman had vanished. Her white blood was in the ascendency.