"You're right there, colonel, when you speak of her beauty, for I have never seen one that could surpass her; I wonder that she don't turn the heads of all she meets. Perhaps she does, though, and, if you hadn't foreclosed there, I would be tempted to make a claim myself." "It will be dangerous for any man to interfere with me." The individual whom he addressed as a captain was heard to laugh at the words of his superior officer, and he replied: "I am sure there is no fear of my trying to intrude myself in that direction, for I am opposed to the thing on principle." "I am aware of that," replied the colonel, the party having halted on the edge of the river, as if awaiting the coming of some one. "Of course I had no reference to _you_ when I spoke, but I feel especially angry toward Red Jack, or Lena-Wingo, and I will give a good deal for his scalp. He has played the mischief with our plans more than once, and now, when everything is going along just as I want it to, he comes in and walks off with the prize." "But don't you suppose he was set up to do it?" "Certainly; and Colonel Denison was the man who put it into his head. I can see it all now, though I didn't suspect it at the time." "Why don't you shoot him?" "I was mad enough to do that; and I believe that if I had met him last night, after the Mohawk escaped so narrowly being cut through by my sword, I would have done it. But I have thought the matter over to-day, and made up my mind that it won't pay. There have already been some things about this Wyoming business that will make trouble. The Indians ought to have killed every rebel that wasn't shot down in battle; but they let so many get away that they will tell all sorts of stories about us, and when they get to England, they may interfere with some little plans of my own."[A] "Well, if you catch the bird that flew away, you can afford to forgive the well-intended schemes; for when she is once in your hands, what care you for others? You tell me, colonel, that the Mohawk did not reach Wilkesbarre with her to-day?" "No. I had word from there at sunset, and they had not been seen anywhere in the neighborhood; and, as the Mohawk was observed on this side of the stream near noon to-day, he must still be here." "It has been dark quite awhile, and he may have slipped across since the sun went down." "He may, it is true, but it is hardly likely, for the redskins, as a rule, don't like to do their work until the latter part of the night. People are too apt to be wide awake in the earlier portion of the evening; and I am quite sure Red Jack will wait till beyond midnight before he makes a move in the business." "The night promises to be dark, so that when he undertakes to paddle to the other shore, he will be pretty apt to do it."