"
"Then you have no reason to believe you are followed, Nat?"
"Don't I tell you I have every reason?" Nat said. "If that redskin, the
Owl, has got any suspicion--and suspicion you may be sure he's got--he
won't rest till he's cleared the matter up. He is after us, sure
enough."
"Then had we not better make for the canoe at full speed?"
"No," Nat said. "If they are behind us, they will be watching our
trail; and if they see we change our pace, they will be after us like a
pack of wolves; while, as long as we walk slowly and carelessly, they
will let us go. If it were dark, we might make a run for it, but there
ain't no chance at present. If we took to the lake, we should have a
hundred canoes after us, while the woods are full of Indians, and a
whoop of the Owl would bring a hundred of them down onto our track."
"Why shouldn't the Owl have denounced you at once, if he suspected
you?" James asked.
"Because it ain't redskin nature to do anything, till you are sure,"
the scout replied. "There is nothing a redskin hates so much as to be
wrong, and he would rather wait, for weeks, to make sure of a thing,
than run the risk of making a mistake. I don't suppose he takes us for
whites. He expects we belong to some other tribe, come in as spies.
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