"You know how I'm indebted to Blake." "It's your place," Harding insisted.

"Try to arrange the thing with the Indian." It took some time, but the man proved amenable.

He frankly owned that he would not have ventured near the Stony camp alone, because of some quarrel between its inhabitants and his tribe, originating, Benson gathered, over a dispute about trapping grounds; but he was ready to accompany the white man, if the latter went well armed.
"All right; that's settled.

We start at daybreak," said Harding.
"I'll lie down now; it's your watch." Five minutes later he was sound asleep, and awoke, quietly determined and ready for the march, in the cold of dawn.

He was a man of the cities, bred to civilized life, but he had a just appreciation of the risks attached to his undertaking.