He plucked, too, at his short, light beard, and Braxton Wyatt read his thoughts.

The renegade felt a thrill of satisfaction.

Here was a man who could be useful.
"How far is it from this place to the land of the Miamis and the Shawnees ?" asked Alvarez.
"It must be six or seven hundred miles, but bands of both tribes are now hunting much farther west.

One Shawnee party that I know of is even now west of the Mississippi." Francisco Alvarez, frowned slightly.
"It is a huge country," he said.

"These great distances annoy me.