Page:Barbour--Metipoms Hostage.djvu/62

50 he felt more than a match. Small openings at the level of a man’s head, and none so  greatly above the level of David’s, pierced  the four walls and from these at intervals  the boy peered out. The house was set in a clearing of sufficient area to protect from  sudden attack, and from the nearer forest an  arrow would fall spent before it reached the  dwelling. Even when darkness had settled, the stars gave enough light to have revealed  to sharp eyes the presence of a skulking figure. Between watching, David replenished the fire and dipped into one of two books  that he had brought back with him, but he  was in no mind for settled reading and, when  the better part of two hours had passed,  heard not without relief the sound of his  father’s voice at the edge of the wood.

“Master Vernham had already heard rumors of mischief against him,” said Nathan Lindall when he had entered, “and we might  have spared ourselves the journey. He seems not concerned, but has agreed to observe  caution. He thinks the threats came first from the Indians we drove away and are but  repeated and adorned as tales ever are. Yet for my part, David, I am not so easy. ’Tis a time of unrest, and for a while it will be