“I must confess that it will change them considerably. It will be of more importance to me to secure the scalp than the girl. It is a queer will. The old man must have been crazy.”
“His head was clear enough, as you well know, and we need make no question about the will. If you can recover the scalp, the girl will be obliged to marry you, or she will get nothing from the property worth speaking of. The two halves, put together, would make a right handsome pile.”
“They would, indeed, and I could afford to give you a share. I must secure both the scalp and the girl. I see no objection that Miss Flora could have to marrying me. I have always been considered a proper man.”
“Proper enough, no doubt; but young ladies have strange fancies sometimes. Where do you expect to find her?”
“Rather strange, I admit, but none the less true. Pap Byers, who was one of the party when we were attacked, picked up a Crow blanket and a Crow moccasin after the fight, and he was sure that they were Crows who stampeded us.”
“But the Crows never molest white people.”
“Very seldom, it is true; but this may have been a party of young braves who were returning from an expedition which had not resulted to suit them, and they may have wanted to carry home a few horses or scalps, thinking that they would not be found out. War-parties dislike to return empty-handed.”
“That is true, and you are probably right in supposing that the assailants were Crows. If so, they have the scalp and Miss Flora. But how will you get them?”
“George Benning wanted to go in search of the young lady, and I let him take Pap Byers and Sam Glass and a green young Irishman. If they found her, they were to bring her to the rendezvous; but I have neither seen nor heard any thing of them.”
“It is very likely. They were afoot, and their first movement would have been to steal some horses from the Indians. That might have brought them into trouble.”
“If Benning is out of the way, it will be all the better for you, as I have heard that he was getting fond of Miss Flora, and he is, or was, a likely young fellow.”
“It would pain me greatly to hear of his death.”
“None of your hypocrisy, Martin Laurie. We know each other too well for that. What do you mean to do now?”