With infinite good taste and tact, Elmsley utterly abstained from making the slightest allusion to Mrs. Ronayne, not only because he had perceived that her husband did not seem to encourage any approach to a subject which gave him pain, but because he felt that the consolation of those words, on an occasion of such bereavement, was rather a mockery than a sympathy. Without, therefore, making the slightest allusion to the past, he answered gravely-- "If you have reason to apprehend this, Ronayne, we can take our precautions accordingly. As the whole object and intent of the council is to _seem_ to hold a consultation as to the course we ought to pursue in this emergency, whereas it is simply in fact to enable Headley, who is becoming stubborn and pompous as of old, to tell the chiefs that he intends at once to distribute the public stores among themselves and warriors, and then march with little more than the men can carry on their backs; as this only, I repeat, is his object in holding a council at all, I see no great reason why either you or I, who have already given our opinions on the matter, should attend it. We may do the 'state some service' by remaining within." "Would it not be well," returned the Virginian thoughtfully, "to give Headley some hint of false dealing on the part of the Pottowatomies? not such as to lead him to believe that any direct intelligence has been received of that fact, but simply that some loose hints have been thrown out." "My dear fellow," returned the lieutenant, with a faint smile, "do you think there is anything under the sun--scarcely even the tomahawk in his own brain--that could persuade Headley to mistrust his pet Pottowatomies? No, not even his long experience of the treachery of the race--not all his knowledge of the fickleness of their character--of the facility with which they turn over in a single day from the American to the British flag--would convince him." "And yet," pursued Ronayne, musingly, "they know nothing of the war. What could be their motives, where their immediate interests will be rather retarded than promoted by the maintenance of peaceful relations?" "How do we know what passes without the fort? They may have had their runners and news brought to them of the war before Winnebeg returned." A sudden thought flashed across the brain of Ronayne. Could tidings of the event in any way be connected with the flight of his wife? and had that, at the instigation of Wau-nan-gee, accelerated the moment of her departure? But Elmsley knew not what _he_ knew, and he offered no remark on the subject.