XIII
THE TRAILERS"Shall we return and face them?" I asked eagerly.
Ta-wan-ne-ars permitted himself a smile of friendly sarcasm.
"If we can hear them, surely they can hear us," he said. "No, we will keep on. There is a place farther along the trail from which we can look back upon them. Come, Ormerod, you and I will run ahead. Peter will follow us."
"But why does he not come with us!" I objected. "If there is danger——"
"If there is danger we will all front it together," interrupted Ta-wan-ne-ars. "Peter is to walk behind us so that the trailers may not detect our haste."
"Ja," assented Peter.
Ta-wan-ne-ars shifted his musket to his shoulders, and broke into a long, loping stride. I followed him.
Half a mile up the trail we came to a clearing where some storm of bygone years had bat
