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 "When do you go to Tallasee?" he asked hopefully. "Your warriors have arrived. I have seen them in the streets."

The young man smiled.

"I had intended leaving on the third day from this, but the journey may be postponed. My father bids me come to him, but not in haste. As for my braves, they can rest here for a while, and await my pleasure."

Almayne drummed restlessly on the table, pursed his lips, then raised his eyes suddenly to meet the other's gaze.

"Lachlan," he said earnestly, "it is time you started for Tallasee. Your father awaits you there, your mother is eager for your coming. In all the Muskogee towns the Red War Club has been set up. The Bloody Stick and the Chips of Wood have been sent to twenty chiefs. There is war in the wind—war with both Choctaws and Chicasaws and perhaps with a great tribe from the West. Your father has sent for you, and you must go."

Lachlan met the other's gaze gravely.

"It is strange, Almayne," he said. "I never before have known you show such eagerness to be rid of me."

The hunter's face took on a troubled look.

"Lachlan," he said slowly, "I will tell you again what you already know because the telling of it now may serve a good purpose. When your father came here from Scotland in his youth, many years ago, I