at is your mind, in the matter?" the captain next asked, of Caleb
Cook.

Caleb Cook was brave: a Plymouth man who had been in the fight when
King Phillip was killed. Yes, he had tried a shot at King Phillip,
there, but his gun had failed him.

"Sir, I am never afraid of going anywhere when you are with me,"
asserted Caleb Cook.

Captain Church made ready. No time was to be lost, for Squannaconk
swamp contained three thousand acres, and if he did not start at once
he might lose Annawan in the darkness. He sent his horse back. The
old Indian said that the swamp was too thick with brush, for a horse.
He sent the Indian young man and two other prisoners back, with the
horse. They were to tell Lieutenant Howland to move on to the town of
Taunton, but to expect him in the morning on the Rehoboth road--where
he would surely come out, if he were alive, with Chief Annawan.

He kept the old man and the girl.

"Now if you will guide me to Captain Annawan, your lives shall be
spared," he said to them.

The old man bowed low to him.

"Since you have given us our lives, we are obliged to serve you," he
answered. He was a courtly old man. "Captain Annawan and his people
are camped under a great rock in the midst of the swamp, north from
here. Come and I will show you."

Thereupon Captain Church pressed forward to the vast swamp, with his
one white man and five Indians, to capture Chief Annawan and his fifty
or sixty.

The old councillor was nimble. He scuttled fast, but whenever he got
out of sight from them, he would wait. They traveled all the rest of
the day, until sunset. Then when amidst the twilight deep in the swamp
they came upon the old man again, he was sitting down. They all sat
down.

"What news now?" Captain Church demanded.

"We must wait here," the old man replied. "Captain Annawan is not far.
At this time he sends out his scouts, to see that there are no enemies
near about. They return at dark, and then we may move without fear."

When the swamp was dark, the old man arose.

"Let us go on," he said.

"Will you take a gun and fight for me," Captain Church invited.

The old councillor bowed lower than before.

"I beg you not to ask me to fight against my old friend, Captain
Annawan," he pleaded. "But I will go in with you, and help you, and
will lay hands upon anybody that shall offer to harm you."

They moved forward, keeping close together, for the swamp was growing
dark indeed. S