"I'm all right now. I'll watch the south wall."
She said determinedly, "We'll both watch the south wall," and she stood
very close beside him in the event that he needed her suddenly.
Time dragged on. Rifle cradled in his arm, Winterson came back to stand
beside Joe. He peered at the tall grass.
"See anything?"
"Nothing's moved for a couple of hours. Do you think they've gone?"
"No, I don't," Winterson declared. "They don't like hot lead and they
aren't going to expose themselves to it. They're out in the brush
cooking up some new kind of deviltry. When they get it cooked, they'll
serve it to us."
"They might try something, but I doubt it. There's some heathenish
nonsense about their having to die in the daylight so they can see their
way to the spirit land. But--and I'll bet on it--we haven't seen the
last of them. Think one of us should try slipping out to Camp Axton
tonight?"
"It's a pretty long chance, what with so many of them being out there.
We can hang on for one more day. The day after tomorrow's the fifteenth,
and the chaplain and some soldiers are coming from Axton anyway. No
sense in being foolish if we don't have to."
"That makes sense," Winterson conceded. "Well, I'll go rest my eyes on
some of your scenery again. Might get a shot."
All through the long afternoon nothing appeared, and the women prepared
and served dinner in the last lingering hour of twilight. They ate,
while the embers of the dying fire cast a ghostly glow into the room.
Again Joe wondered if this were actually real. None of it fitted his
preconceived notions of an Indian fight, with bullets flying thick and
fast and deeds of derring-do. So far not a dozen shots had been fired.
Then he glanced soberly at Ellis's bandaged head. It was real enough.
They took the mattresses from the beds and laid them on the floor.
Sleepy, and somewhat bored, the children curled up where bullets could
not reach them. Joe walked back to his post at the window, and he saw a
thin sickle of a moon hanging as though from invisible wires in the sky.
It shed a faint light, and Joe stiffened when he saw an Indian crawling
up to the cabin. But closer scrutiny proved that it was only a shadow.
"Haven't seen a thing!" Tad wailed. "Do you suppose they'll come
tonight, Pa?"
"I don't know. Hadn't you better knock off for a while and get some
sleep?"