"You
don't mean there's talk of an outbreak among them, do you?"
"That's exactly what I _do_ mean," replied Mr. Melton seriously. "The
young bucks are discontented, and are continually making 'war medicine.'
Of course, the old men of the tribes do all they can to keep them within
bounds, for they know how useless any outbreak would be. But the young
men have never had the bitter experience of their fathers, and at present
they seem very restless."
"But I thought the days of Indian outbreaks were over," exclaimed Tom
excitedly; "why, they wouldn't have a ghost of a chance if they started
anything now."
"Just the same there are enough of them to make trouble, if they ever got
started," said Mr. Melton soberly. "Of course, as you say, the uprising
would be suppressed quickly enough, but not perhaps without considerable
bloodshed and loss of property. At any rate, the prospect of such an
outbreak is enough to keep people living anywhere near the reservation
boundary on the anxious seat."
"But I should think," remarked Dick, "that the authorities would make
such preparations to subdue an uprising among the Indians that it would
be crushed before they had a chance to get off the reservation.
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