“Oh, no danger about that. The colonel understands Indian fighting, and he’ll show some of it, too, when he undertakes it.” “Something better than their last colonel, I hope. Umph!—couldn’t be any worse,” remarked Captain Parks, who had just come. “Wal, mistakes will sometimes happen,” said the scout in extenuation; “and I s’pose that Colonel Sandford’s was one of them; but that don’t shift the blame, for all that. He made the blunder, and would, like as not, do it again, and consequently he ain’t fit to go into Injin ground.” “The Wetzel brothers render great service to the settlement, I understand,” observed the minister. “They are regular teams. If they’ll let Lew Wetzel manage matters, there’ll be no mistake made; he knows all about Injin ways.” “The Shawnees, I believe, are causing the most trouble?” “Them imps are at the bottom of the whole trouble we’ve had. They have always been mean and ugly enough to do anything, and since Simon Girty has got among them, they’re nothing but a set of devils let loose upon airth. It’s the fact,” added the scout, as he noticed a look of displeasure upon the minister’s face. “It’s the fact, I say; them Shawnees are the biggest set of villains that ever walked on two legs or four either, for that matter.” “I suppose that this renegade has a great influence over them?” “A great influence? Well, there?” repeated the scout, gesticulating very emphatically, “There ain’t a Injin chief west of Pennsylvania that can do more with his tribe than he can, and there ain’t a single chief among the Shawnees who dare persist in opposing him. No, sir.” “Girty I knew when a boy,” said the minister, “and I have prayed many a time for him since. Although a dark and guilty man, he is a brave one, and was led to forswear his race on account of the brutal treatment he received from them. I have often wondered whether it were possible to win him back again.” “_Win him back again?_” repeated the scout, recoiling a step or two, in perfect amazement. “No, sir; _never_. A greater monster never breathed, and as long as he lives his whole aim will be to revenge himself upon us; and what is worse, he isn’t alone. There’s that Pete Johnson, as big a devil, and a bigger coward, and a half dozen others, among the Injins, who are ever setting them on.” “Umph! they’ll get paid for it yet.” “But I see the day is well along,” remarked the scout, “and I must be on my way to the other settlements.”