A word with ye Mikal... I heard ye say ye might be fugitive from the British Army? The "why" being none of my business, I'll give ye a word of alert. Two Crow hunters, coming down from the Powder River Country northeast of this place, came across a party of British Dragoons camped in a meadow a half day's ride from here. Though this be territory of the United States, we have seen redcoats fairly often in this country. "Protecting the lives and rights of British trappers and traders," they sez. So this may be nothing to you, except to be forewarned and forearmed as they say.About a dozen of em, said the Crow lads.

Now, some of us here have had our run-ins with the redcoats, been robbed of our pelts. And my own Uncle Gervis was killed in the Independence War, so we're inclined to stand by ye. Even more so, if we know the reason for yer ... shall I say yer desertion?

And that beast lurking in the rafters? Don't let him spook ye. He's only an old Magpie that Broken Spoke Wheeler taught to talk. Wheeler never was right in the head, ye know.