Besides, I counted on his sword to aid in the defence of Mademoiselle.

I understood thoroughly the desperate chances of Indian treachery that lay before such a commission as was now proposed.

It was rash in the extreme; and only the terrors of our position could sanction such an experiment.

The savages that hemmed us in were already in an ugly mood, and fully conscious of their power.

To go forth to them, unarmed and uninvited, as Captain Heald coolly proposed doing, was to walk open-eyed into a trap which treachery might snap shut at any time.