"
"Then may this business be dispatched without the embarrassment the
Captain seems to dread. We have an Indian, who offers to lead a party
through the forests to the haunts of the bloody chiefs, therein bringing
affairs to the issue of manhood and discretion."
"And wherein do you propose any departure from the suggestions that have
already been made?"
Ensign Dudley had not risen to his present rank, without acquiring a
suitable portion of the reserve which is so often found to dignify
official sentiments. Having ventured the opinion already placed, however
vaguely, before his hearers, he was patiently awaiting its effects on the
mind of his superior, when the latter, by his earnest and unsuspecting
countenance, no less than by the question just given, showed that he was
still in the dark as to the expedient the subaltern wished to suggest.
"I think there will be no necessity for making more captives," resumed
Eben, "since the one we have appears to create difficulties in our
councils. If there be any law in the Colony, which says that men must
strike with a gentle hand in open battle, it is a law but little spoken of
in common discourse, and though no pretender to the wisdom of legislators,
I will make bold to add, it is a law that may as well be forgotten until
this outbreaking of the savages shall be quelled.
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