“I know one Pottowattomie who won’t join him anyway,” said Robert.
“By the way, where is he?” exclaimed Joseph suddenly. “I haven’t seen him in a long time.”
“Perhaps he has already joined Black Hawk,” said Walt, and he laughed in an insinuating manner as he spoke.
“Don’t you say that!” cried Joseph hotly. “Deerfoot is the best friend that Bob and I have left on earth and I don’t want him slandered.”
“No, sir!” chimed in Robert. “If ever there was a man more faithful than Deerfoot, I’ve never seen him or heard of him. You may take our word for it that he can always be counted on.”
“He certainly has two loyal supporters all right,” laughed Walt. “If you boys are so sure he’s all right, I guess I’ll have to believe you.”
“You’d better,” exclaimed Joseph. “Now let’s go look for him,” he added.
Their soldier friend had disappeared. His horse needed care and he had gone to report at headquarters and receive his orders. General Whiteside’s division had but a scanty store of supplies and were forced to depend upon those which had been collected at Dixon’s Ferry. Fortunately they were believed to be fully adequate.
“There is a lot of feeling among our men about joining General Whiteside, you know,” said Walt as the three volunteers walked along.
“You mean among those who were here before he arrived?” Joseph asked.
“Yes, I don’t care much about it either. We want to fight in our own way, and, personally, I don’t see why we should be tied down to the regular levies. I had hoped we’d go on without them.”
“We could act as scouts or rangers,” Robert suggested.
“That’s just my idea,” Walt exclaimed. “We could push on ahead and see what is going on and act independently of the others. There are three hundred and more of us and that seems to me to be enough.”
“We’ll hear something soon anyway, I guess,” said Joseph.
“I think so,” agreed Walt. “I must leave you for a while now,” he added. “I’ll drop around to your tent a little later.”
The two brothers continued on their way. It was an interesting and exciting experience for them to see and feel the bustle and hustle of a military camp and to know that they were part of it. Horses were tethered under all the trees, tents sprang up on all sides as if by magic, while everywhere men were busy with the thousand and one duties of camp life.