Think
of a child like that being made to walk five or six hundred miles
through these woods!"
"Younger ones still have had to do it," said Shif'less Sol
gravely, "an' them that couldn't-well, the tomahawk."
The trail was leading them toward the Seneca country, and they
had no doubt that the Indians were Senecas, who had been more
numerous than any others of the Six Nations at the Wyoming
battle. They came that afternoon to a camp fire beside which the
warriors and captives had slept the night before.
"They ate bar meat an' wild turkey," said Long Jim, looking at
some bones on the ground.
"An' here," said Tom Ross, "on this pile uv bushes is whar the
women an' children slept, an' on the other side uv the fire is
whar the warriors lay anywhars. You can still see how the bodies
uv some uv 'cm crushed down the grass an' little bushes."
"An' I'm thinkin'," said Shif'less Sol, as he looked at the trail
that led away from the camp fire, "that some o' them little ones
wuz gittin' pow'ful tired. Look how these here little trails are
wobblin' about."
"Hope we kin come up afore the Injuns begin to draw thar
tomahawks," said Tom Ross.
The others were silent, but they knew the dreadful significance
of Tom's remark, and Henry glanced at them all, one by one.
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