We have food to eat, water to drink
and bullets to shoot, and if you care to take us you must come and do
so."
"And that is the final answer? You're quite sure you don't wish to
consult your superior officer, Captain Colden?"
"Absolutely sure. It would waste the time of all of us."
"Then it seems there is nothing more to say, and to use your own
fanciful way of putting it, we must go back from the play of words to
the play of swords."
"I see no alternative."
"And yet I hope that you will survive the combat, Mr. Lennox."
"I've the same hope for you, Chevalier de St. Luc."
Each meant it, and, in the same high manner of the day, they saluted
and withdrew. Robert, as he walked back to the thickets in which the
defenders lay, felt that Indian eyes were upon him, and that perhaps
an Indian bullet would speed toward him, despite St. Luc. Tandakora
and the savages around him could not always be controlled by their
French allies, as was to be shown too often in this war. His sensitive
mind once more turned fancy into reality and the hair on his head
lifted a little, but pride would not let him hasten his steps.
No gun was fired, and, with an immense relief, he sank down behind a
fallen log, and by the side of Colden and Willet.
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