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Rh to guard the house. Perhaps that were better, for should the savages attack while we  be gone you will be more able to cope with  them than the lad.”

Obid’s dismay brought a chuckle from David. “Whether I go or stay,” he shrilled, “it seems I must be murdered, then! Nay, I will accompany you, for at least in the  forest I may have a chance to save myself in  flight, whereas an I bide here I must likely  burn to death like a rabbit in a brush-heap! But in the morning, master—”

“Twice you have informed me of that, Obid. Get your hat and gun and let us be off, magpie. Mayhap if we haste we can be back before it be fully dark.”

Obid obeyed grumblingly, and soon they had set forth, leaving David to make fast  the door and windows and await their return.

It would be untrue to say that David felt no uneasiness, but his uneasiness was not  fear. Besides his own musket and the two that his father and Obid had taken with  them there was a fourth at hand as well as a  pistol that, although of uncertain accuracy,  could be used if required, and against a few  Indians armed only with bows and arrows