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seems he gives fair warning,” said Nathan Lindall quietly as he stooped and lifted the horrid token from the step. The snakeskin rustled as his hand touched it, and Obid, peering over his shoulder, shuddered in disgust. David was already outside, his keen eyes searching the moist ground. A dozen steps he took and then pointed toward the  woods to the west.

“Thence he came, sir, and went,” he announced.

“One only?” asked his father.

“Aye, though there may have been more beyond the clearing.”

“What mean the blue spots on the arrow, master?” asked Obid troubledly.

Nathan Lindall looked at the three stains on the slender shaft and shook his head. “I know not, Obid, unless they be this sachem’s signature. Or mayhap they have a more trenchant meaning. What matter? He has put us on our guard, though for what  reason I cannot discern.”