I wish that all of us were as true as he." He touched his gun lock in a threatening manner, and Braxton Wyatt and the others who stood by said no more in his presence.

Yet the course of the day was against Henry's assertion.

The afternoon waned, the sun, a ball of copper, swung down into the west, long shadows fell and nothing happened.
The people moved and talked impatiently inside their wooden walls.

They spoke of going about their regular pursuits, there was work that could be done on the outside in the twilight, and enough time had been lost already through a false alarm.

But some of the older men, with cautious blood, advised them to wait and their counsel was taken.