a friendly way to the men to gather around him.

He spoke with an easy southern drawl, but he made his voice carry.

"Now, men, I don't set myself up as your superior, even though I am a
Federal officer. We're all equal Americans here." He nodded as if
thinking something over. "In fact, many of you are important men in
civilian life, and I have no doubt some of you will hold public office
and be giving orders to _me_ some day."

Raoul's eyes traveled over the crowd, and he noticed one figure taller
than most, eyes grave as he listened intently to Taylor. That Lincoln
fellow, who had been such a nuisance at Prophet's Town. Raoul wondered
if the young man was for or against crossing the Rock River today.

Taylor said, "The best assurance you have that I'll obey your orders
when it comes your turn is that I'm obeying the orders I've got now. I
will tell you in a moment what those orders are. But let me refresh your
memory about what Black Hawk and his savages have done to the people you
and I are sworn to defend."

He pulled a folded paper from the side pocket of his blue jacket and
read from it.

"One man killed at Bureau Creek. One man at Buffalo Grove, another at
the Fox River. Two on the Checagou Road. A woman and two men killed on
the outskirts of Galena. Apple River Fort besieged, four dead. Seven men
massacred at Kellogg's Grove. Three whole families, fifteen people,
wiped out at Indian Creek. Victor besieged, and seventeen men, women and
children massacred."

Raoul saw the shamefaced glances of men who knew him shift his way. He
looked down at the ground angrily. He didn't want these men pitying him.

But an image of burned and scattered flesh and bones reared up suddenly
in his mind. It struck at him like a rattlesnake. He almost threw up. He
clenched his fists and held himself rigid.

One man called out, "Colonel Taylor, that's why we don't want to cross
the state line. The Indians are attacking all over the place, and we
want to be back home to protect our people."

Taylor nodded. "That's understandable. But I've been fighting Indians
for a long time. I came up against old Black Hawk nearly twenty years
ago in the war against the British. I've got a score to settle with him,
because he whipped me then, and I promise you he will not whip _us_ this
time. Yes, that's wild country up there, no doubt about it. But we'll
have a band of Potawatomi scouts led by one of their chiefs, Billy
Caldwell, to guide u