"The Cherokees are on us," I said, and I told them of the army we had
followed.
"How many?" they asked.
"Three hundred for a vanguard, but more follow."
One man laughed, as if well pleased. "I'm in the humour for Cherokees
just now. There's a score of scalps hanging outside, if you could see
them, Mr. Garvald."
"What scalps?" I asked, dumbfoundered.
"The Rapidan murderers. We got word of them in the woods yesterday, and
six of us went hunting. It was pretty shooting. Two got away with some
lead in them, the rest are in the Tewawha pools, all but their
topknots. I've very little notion of Cherokees."
Somehow the news gave me intense joy. I thought nothing of the
barbarity of it, or that white men should demean themselves to the
Indian level. I remembered only the meadow by the Rapidan, and the
little lonely water-wheel. Our vow was needless, for others had done
our work.
"Would I had been with you!" was all I said. "But now you have more
than a gang of Meebaw raiders to deal with. There's an invasion coming
down from the hills, and this is the first wave of it, I want word sent
to Governor Nicholson at James Town. I was to tell him where the
trouble was to be feared, and in a week you'll have a regiment at your
backs.
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