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"And who is that?" Josiah asked, interested

Peter shrugged and scratched at his beard

"Aye, well, I shouldna say it’s anyone, so to speak Only that the shamans say there is a spirit who lives in each o’ the four directions, and each spirit has a color to hiin’ their prayers and the like, they’ll maybe call the Red Man o’ the East to help the person they’re singing for, because Red is the color of triuive the spirit of the North his right name--that’s defeat and trouble So ye’d call on hirief, aye? To the South, that’s the White Man, and he’s peace and happiness; they sing to him for the women with child, and the like"

Jamie looked both startled and interested to hear this

"That’s verra like the four airts, Peter, is it no?"

"Well, it is, then," Peter agreed, nodding "Odd, no? That the Cherokee should get hold of the same notions as we Hielanders have?"

"Oh, not so estured to the dark wood, beyond the small circle of our fire "They live as we do, aye? Hunters, and dwellers in the mountains Why should they not see e have seen?"

Peter nodded slowly, but Josiah was i

"Well, what’s the Black Man o’ the West, then?" he demanded Both Jamie and Peter turned their heads as one to look at hi alike--Peter was short, squat, and genially bearded, Ja clothes--and yet there was so identical in their eyes, thatdown ht

"The West is the home of the dead," Jamie said softly, and Peter nodded, soberly

"And the Black Man o’ the West is death himself," he added "Or so say the Cherokee"

Josiah was heard to mutter that he didn’t think so very ht even less of it

"I do not believe that the spirit of the West was out in the woods conking people on the head," she declared firmly "It was a person Josiah saw And it was a black person Ergo, it was either a free black or an escaped slave And given the odds, I vote for escaped slave"

I wasn’t sure it was a ree with her

"Here’s another thought," she said, looking round "What if it’s this little black man who’s responsible for some of the half-eaten people? Aren’t some of the African slaves cannibals?"

Peter Bewlie’s eyes popped at that; so did the Beardsleys’ Kezzie cast an uneasy look over his shoulder and edged closer to Josiah

Jah

"Well, I suppose ye reed "Though I canna say I’ve heard of one ast the slaves I shouldna think they’d be verra desirable as house-servants, aye? Ye’d be afraid to turn your back, for fear of being bitten in the backside"

This reh, and relieved the tension so to bed

We took especial care in putting the food into two of the saddlebags, which Jaood distance frohost-bear had been revealed to be less powerful than previously supposed, there was an unspoken agree chances

For the e that we lived in a wilderness Now and then soible evidence would shove the fact under my nose: nocturnal visits by foxes, possu screa of women or the shrieks of small children It was quiet nohere ere But there was no way of standing in the center of those ed in the absolute black at their feet, listening to the secretthat one was anywhere but in the grip of the forest pri that the wilderness could s us in one gulp, if it cared to, leaving not a clue behind of our existence

For all her logic, Brianna was by no means immune to the whispers of the forest--not with a suard She didn’t help with the readying of ca her rifle

Jamie, after a quick look at Brianna, announced that he and she would take the first watch; Josiah and I the next, and Peter and Kezzie the last watch of the night Heretofore, we hadn’t kept a watch, but no one co day in the saddle is one of the best soporifics, and I lay down beside Ja horizontal that coently onsafe and protected