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Show Page 199 the two other women back to the fort, with a few armed men for protection, while the rest scouted the settlement. At first I refused to go, thinking to look for Margaret. But at last John took me aside. "You have seen enough horror for one day," he told me. "I beg you, Sarah, go back to the fort. There may still be Indians about and I truly do not believe I could bear it if you, too, came to harm this day, though how you survived thus far I know not." I had not yet had time to explain to him how I had climbed the tree and been saved. Looking into his eyes, from whence the golden flecks had fled, and seeing how the scar on his cheek stood out upon his dear, pale face, my determination shrivelled. I nodded, then went to join the other women. From the fort I stood and watched as the group of men, their muskets ever at the ready, crept from smoking rubble to smoking rubble, though the ruins were still too hot to enter. At times I saw them bend and scoop something into the sacks they carried and knew they were gathering the arms, the legs, the heads of those who had not been left in the houses to burn. A few who lay dead in the fields had not been dismembered and they, too, were gathered together. Graves were dug near the remains of the Boys' dwelling and the dead given a hasty burial. |