“Now, Tim, get some green corn and, Bill, you go and milk the two cows in the yard. They must have been in the woods when the Sioux raided the place. Tatanka may listen for bad sounds, but I think we are safe here and we shall soon have a real supper.”
In a few minutes Barker had closed the door, hung a blanket over the two windows, lit a candle and started a fire in the kitchen stove. Soon the corn was boiling and slices of bacon sizzled in the pan. Bill came in with a pail of milk and Tatanka came in and reported, “No Dakotahs here.”
No supper ever tasted so good to Bill and Tim, and the trapper-cook kept putting slices of bacon in the pan, while his hungry guests helped themselves as quick as the white slices curled and browned.
After supper the lads spread their blankets on the floor, tied Meetcha in the small woodshed and found a gunny-sack for him to sleep on.
After the two men had watered the horses at a near-by pond, tied them in the straw-shed, and provided them with plenty of hay, they sat down on the grass to smoke.
“The boys are asleep,” remarked Tatanka, as he filled his pipe a second time with a mixture of killikinnick and tobacco.
“They are my boys now,” replied Barker, “and I shall look after them. I can’t understand that man Hicks. I declare if I don’t almost believe he wanted the lads to get killed. I’d like to break his crooked old bones.”
“He is a bad man,” Tatanka assented. “He hides some evil plan in his heart, but I cannot tell what it is.”
“He does have some evil plan,” exclaimed the trapper as he struck the ground with his fist. “I reckon he will try to take the boys away from me, if he can find us.”
“He is a coward,” continued the Indian; “he will not come alone, he will bring other bad men to help him. We must be on our guard.”
“Tatanka,” said Barker, “I don’t know yet what I shall do, but Hicks will not get these lads unless he can take them from me. Will you stand by me?”
“Tatanka never deserted a friend,” the Indian replied.
“We must sleep now,” said the trapper after a long silence. “We may have another fight to-morrow.”
“I sleep in the shed with the horses,” remarked the Indian, as he bade his friend good-night. “The Dakotahs might come and steal them, if we do not watch.”