The afternoon was now quite well advanced, and besides feeling hungry,
Johnny Brainerd was anxious to get back to camp.
The intervening distance was rapidly passed, and the sun was just
setting as he slacked up within a short distance of Wolf Ravine.
For some unaccountable reason, the nearer he approached 'camp,' as it
was called, a feeling akin to fear came over him. It was a
presentiment of coming evil, which be found it impossible either to
shake off or to define, and that was why he halted some distance away.
From where he stood it was impossible to see his two friends at work,
but at that time of day he knew they were accustomed to stop work and
come out upon the prairie for the purpose of enjoying the cool breeze
of evening. At the same time, when such constant danger threatened,
they were accustomed to have one of their number, either all or a part
of the time, on the ground above, where the approach of enemies could
be detected.
The absence of anything like a sentinel increased the boy's
apprehensions, and when he had waited some fifteen minutes without
seeing anything of his friends he became painfully uneasy.
'What if they had been killed? What if they were prisoners? What if a
hundred Indians were at that moment in the possession of Wolf Ravine?
Such and similar were the questions which the affrighted boy asked
himself, and which, with all his shrewdness, he was unable to answer.
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